Bone Grafting in Arvada CO

Missing teeth cause a lot of problems. In addition to the obvious challenges posed by having a gap in your smile like reduced self-confidence and difficulty chewing your favorite foods, missing teeth are also detrimental to the health of your periodontal bone.

The Importance of Your Periodontal Bone

This important bone beneath your gums is what holds your teeth in place. It also contributes to the shape of your face. When you lose a tooth, this bone is no longer stimulated to maintain itself and it begins to recede. This sets off a whole chain reaction of other problems. As your bone diminishes, neighboring teeth will start to become loose. As you lose those teeth, the process continues. The diminishing bone also contributes to the sunken appearance so common in those who have lost many teeth.

How Do We Solve This Problem?

One way to stop this bone loss in its tracks is by using dental implants. The biocompatible post of the implant actually integrates with the bone and functions like a replacement root, encouraging the bone to maintain itself and stay healthy.

But what if you’ve been missing teeth for a while and the bone is no longer strong enough to support an implant? It might feel like you’re stuck in a catch-22.

That’s where bone grafts come in.

You might already be familiar with the idea of grafting. Skin grafts, for example, are often used to replace skin and encourage new skin growth in people who have been severely burned or who have experienced other trauma to their skin. A bone graft does essentially the same thing.

We surgically place replacement bone in the spot where we want to stimulate new bone growth along with a protein matrix that supports integration. Once the new bone is integrated with the existing bone, we can then place a dental implant. This implant could be used to support a single crown or we could combine it with other restorative techniques like bridges or even dentures to replace multiple missing teeth.

This remarkable new technique has opened up many doors that we once thought were closed and allows us to place implants in patients who previously wouldn’t have been good candidates.

Is a Bone Graft Right for You?

Have you been told that your bone is too weak to support a dental implant? Call our Arvada dental office today to schedule a consultation with Dr. Lindsay Compton. She will perform a thorough examination, complete with digital x-rays, and discuss your health history to see if a bone graft is a good choice for you.

At Generations Family and Cosmetic Dentistry, we are proud to offer modern, advanced dentistry to our patients. We believe that it’s never too late to have a beautiful, healthy smile.