When imaging shows that there is insufficient bone to immediately place one or more implants in the upper or lower jaw, this can be remedied by various techniques. Either artificial bone or the body's own bone tissue can be used, depending on the circumstances and taking into account your personal wishes.
Fortunately, a large amount of bone is not always needed to repair the jaw, so the surgeon can often make do with artificial bone or bone from the bone bank. The big advantage is that no body tissue has to be taken from another place, so the after-effects for you are also much smaller.
Often, we succeed in placing dental implants together with the bone restoration. The disadvantage, however, is that artificial bone attaches more slowly than your own bone tissue, so it may take a little longer before you can have a new tooth, bridge or prosthesis made by the dentist.
For many years, bone grafting using the body's own bone was the gold standard for repairing bone defects, but improvements in artificial bone techniques have restricted the indications for this procedure. However, if large parts of the jaw need to be repaired, artificial bone is insufficient and the body's own bone must be used.
Pieces of bone can be safely taken from the upper or lower jaw, often from a place behind the wisdom teeth, or even from the iliac crest or the roof of the skull and mixed with artificial bone. They are then fixed to the upper or lower jaw with small screws so that they can grow in over a few months.
The surgeon will try to predict the possibility of inserting implants together with the bone restoration as well as possible in advance on the basis of clinical and radiographic examination. This is sometimes possible, while in other cases the implants can only be placed after healing. An additional advantage of restoring the lost bone is that the facial muscles and the skin are again better supported, which will ultimately give you a significantly younger appearance.
