After a tooth extraction or tooth loss, a dentist may suggest receiving a bone graft. This happens when it is found that you don’t have the required bone mass to allow the implant to secure in the bone firmly. This can happen if you have stayed longer before getting an implant, whereby the bone has resorbed. It can also happen if your bone is not enough at the time you lost the tooth.
Allow A Bone Graft Site To Heal
After getting a bone graft, it has to heal so that the implants can be placed. A bone graft procedure requires the dentist to do surgery where bone material from another part of the body or a donor is applied. The applied bone integrates with your real bone to become one thing. This process takes time.
How Long It Takes To Heal
A bone graft needs about three to four months to heal and be sturdy enough to support your dental implant. Until that has happened, you will not receive the implants. Usually, when we do an extraction, we also conduct the bone grafting and place the membrane in that same appointment. We then allow you to heal for about four months. After that, we place the titanium screw or implant post, which again requires roughly three to four months of healing. Later on, you come in so that we uncover the screw from the tissue and let the site heal for about a month. It’s after the healing that we place the final restorations. Essentially, it may take up to nine months after bone grafting to receive your dental implants.
Visit us to discover more about dental implants and pre-implant procedures like bone grafting. Our team will walk you through the implant process and pinpoint the situations that necessitate a bone graft. Not every patient needs bone grafting, though. We have to inspect your bone first to determine if you require the procedure.