About Bone Grafting, Anchorage AK

What is Bone Grafting?

Over a period of time, the jawbone associated with missing teeth atrophies and is reabsorbed. This often leaves a condition in which there is poor quality and quantity of bone suitable for placement of dental implants. In these situations, most patients are not candidates for placement of dental implants.

With bone grafting, we now have the opportunity to not only replace bone where it is missing, but also the ability to promote new bone growth in that location! This not only gives us the opportunity to place implants of proper length and width, it also gives us a chance to restore functionality and esthetic appearance.

Video Transcription

Bone grafting is quite often necessary for implant placement. The number one cause for implant failure is inadequate bone. Oftentimes, when people are missing teeth for a long period of time, the bone simply goes away and the old use it. If you don't use it, you lose it. Situation is quite common. That's why we use cone beam CT scans for evaluation. We can determine the exact quantity of bone prior to surgical care, you know, and determine whether or not a graft is necessary to support the implant. And a graft essentially just increases the volume of bone in the area where we're going to place an implant. And once that's fused and healed, we can place an implant. Quite simply, there's all types of different bone grafting, bone grafting procedures, whether that's autonomous bone taken from the patient. There's also cadaveric bone taking from sterilized human bone, and there's xenograft, which is sterilized, either bovine or porcine bone. Now those are all used in different specific instances. Well, what I really like about this office and how we do our bone grafting is that we actually take a little bit of blood and will centrifuge that blood and separate the growth factors in that patient's own body's growth factors and concentrate that with our bone graft material. So it puts the patients at the best possible ability to heal and to rebuild and grow that bone for whatever procedure that's following.

Types of Bone Grafts

Autogenous Bone Grafts:

Autogenous bone grafts, also known as autografts, are made from your own bone, taken from somewhere else in the body. The bone is typically harvested from the chin, jaw, lower leg bone, hip, or the skull. Autogenous bone grafts are advantageous in that the graft material is live bone, meaning it contains living cellular elements that enhance bone growth.

However, one downside to the autograft is that it requires a second procedure to harvest bone from elsewhere in the body. Depending on your condition, a second procedure may not be in your best interest.

Allogenic Bone:

Allogenic bone, or allograft, is dead bone harvested from a cadaver, then processed using a freeze-dry method to extract the water via a vacuum. Unlike autogenous bone, allogenic bone cannot produce new bone on it’s own. Rather, it serves as a framework or scaffold over which bone from the surrounding bony walls can grow to fill the defect or void.

Xenogenic Bone:

Xenogenic bone is derived from non-living bone of another species, usually a cow. The bone is processed at very high temperatures to avoid the potential for immune rejection and contamination. Like allogenic grafts, xenogenic grafts serve as a framework for bone from the surrounding area to grow and fill the void.

Both allogenic and xenogenic bone grafting are advantageous in that they do not require a second procedure to harvest your own bone, as with autografts. However, because these options lack autograft’s bone-forming properties, bone regeneration may take longer than with autografts, with a less predictable outcome.

Bone Graft Substitutes

As a substitute to using real bone, many synthetic materials are available as a safe and proven alternative, including:

Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM)/Demineralized Freeze-Dried Bone Allograft (DFDBA):

This product is processed allograft bone, containing collagen, proteins, and growth factors that are extracted from the allograft bone. It is available in the form of powder, putty, chips, or as a gel that can be injected through a syringe.

Graft Composites:

Graft composites consist of other bone graft materials and growth factors to achieve the benefits of a variety of substances. Some combinations may include: collagen/ceramic composite, which closely resembles the composition of natural bone, DBM combined with bone marrow cells, which aid in the growth of new bone, or a collagen/ceramic/autograft composite.

Bone Morphogenetic Proteins:

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are proteins naturally produced in the body that promote and regulate bone formation and healing.

Synthetic materials also have the advantage of not requiring a second procedure to harvest bone, reducing risk and pain. Each bone grafting option has its own risks and benefits.  Our surgeons will determine which type of bone graft material is right for you.