Bone Grafting – Biomaterials
Confused by dental terminology?
Your dentist told you that you need an implant (or some implants) and worse still, you need a “Bone-Graft”.
The lack of bone is often the result of an extraction of a tooth. The bone surrounding the missing tooth recedes (atrophy) after an extraction. The degree of bone loss varies between individuals and localisation.
Very simplistic explanation for “Bone-grafting”: missing bone is replaced by adding bone graft, often in particle form, on or into the area which needs to be treated (with an implant). Furthermore, to prevent the fast growing gum to creep into the bone graft particles and thus hindering the process of new bone formation, the graft particles have to be covered with a “membrane”. The gum is then sutured over the membrane.
The gum is sutured (stitched) together over the bone-graft and the membrane.