Socket Preservation or Bone Graft Procedure
When a tooth is lost the bone remaining will rapidly resorb or shrink due to the lack of stimulation to the bone. To maintain this bone a socket preservation procedure may be needed. Usually a mixture of demineralized and mineralized bone is mixed with antibiotic and sterile saline and placed into the socket where the tooth root was. A collagen membrane or plug is then sutured into place for the duration of healing. This bone is usually obtained from a cadaver source such as the American red cross, university of Miami medical center, or Straumann . The bone is treated for safety so that no diseases are transferred. This is called an allograft. Bone can also be harvested from the patient at another surgical site. This is called an autogenous graft. The advantage of the autograft is faster healing. The disadvantage is a second surgical site in the mouth adding to trauma of procedure. This bone acts as a matrix for the patients own bone and takes approximately 4-6 months to resorb the cadaver bone or autograft and replace it with the patients own bone. It is at this point that the implant can be placed into the bone and undergoes osseointegration or healing.
When a patient has lost there teeth many years ago and is interested in implant therapy, often times the bone has resorbed to the point that there is not enough bone height or width for an implant. In this case a bone graft is needed. This is very similar to a socket preservation procedure but there may be a need for fixation of the graft with tacks or bone screws to immobilize the bone graft during healing. A collagen membrane is used to stop the soft tissue from making more soft tissue rather than hard bone. Videos are available on our home page under "browse treatment options".
