Dental Bone and Gum Grafting Sydney

Ensure your jaw bone and Gums are thick and strong enough for your dental implant procedure.

Having sufficient bone on your jaw is a vital prerequisite for receiving dental implant treatments.Modern technologies have enabled more and more patients to receive implants after bone grafting procedures. While many professionals can perform a simple implant procedure, bone grafting is an extremely complex area of dentistry. Dr Elkhatib is not only confident with bone grafting procedures but his ongoing study and past experience has allowed him to perform successful bone grafting and implant treatments on some of the most complex cases. Gum grafts are required when there is a lack of gum tissues around placed dental implants. Gum grafts can be done simultaneously with implant placement or after the healing of the dental implant and bone graft surgery.

What is bone and gum grafting?

Bone grafting is a surgical procedure used to replace bone that is otherwise missing. The bone grafting procedure is generally used in two separate ways for two different situations.

  1. Bone Grafting – the process used to effectively replace missing bone using bone from another doner site within your body.
  2. Guided bone regeneration (GBR) – is a method used to enhance growth with a membrane placed over the graft site.

The bone grafting procedure replaces missing bone and allows deteriorated bone to grow back which strengthens the grafted areas by forming a connection between the bone graft and your existing bone. As time progresses, the newly formed bone will replace much of the graft at which point the guided bone generation membrane can be applied. The purpose of this membrane is to encourage new bone to grow and prevent further scar tissue forming as a result of the grafting procedure.

The Gum grafting involves harvesting gum tissue from the patient mouth usually from the palate area and is used to boost the gums around dental implants and gum recession cases.

Why would I need a bone and/or gum graft?

In order to receive any type of dental implant treatment, a sufficient amount bone and gums in the jaw needs to be present. When the implants are placed into the jaw, they need something to grasp; keeping your prosthetic teeth in place and functioning. The presence of enough gums is important for cosmetic and long term success of the dental implants. If you have missing bone and/or gum structure in your jaw, it is usually referred to as a bone defect or a combined defect incase there is a gum defect present. Typically, most people have a bone and gum defects are due to:

  • Gum disease leading to deterioration around the roots of your teeth
  • A cyst, cancer or tumour has been removed from the jaw bone
  • Long term tooth loss resulting in severe resorption
  • Trauma in sport and accidents affecting the jaw bone
  • Defects that have occurred as a result of a tooth or teeth being extracted.

Does everyone need a bone or gum graft?

Not all dental implant patients will require a bone or gum grafts. In many cases a patient with recently lost teeth will still have adequate jaw bone. Dr Elkhatib will be able to guide you on whether you need bone graft surgery or not and the options that suit you best. Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks of failure or rejection.

Dental Bone and Gum Grafting Sydney