A majority of people will only pay attention to the state of their teeth and how it impacts their smile. Optimal oral health nonetheless goes beyond the state of your teeth to include the jawbone and gums. The jawbone makes an essential part of your facial structure.
Other than allowing you to chew and speak, it determines the amount of support your teeth have. Some issues that will lead to jawbone loss include tooth extractions, periodontal disease, osteomyelitis, trauma, sinus deficiencies and developmental issues.
An Upland-based dental and implant center has the needed expertise for installing implants that maintain the space left after tooth loss and avert jawbone loss. The implants will nonetheless only work after the treatment of your jawbone deterioration.
This way, you also have enough room on the bone for the implants to securely attach. There are also several preventive options for jawbone deterioration used after professional tooth extraction. The following are the treatment and preventive alternatives available for jawbone deterioration.
Bone Grafting
With this alternative, a dentist will replace the lost jawbone tissue you are battling with grafting material. The body will over a few months, absorb this material, and use it to restore the volume and density of your jawbone. Autogenous, allogenic and xenogenic bone grafts are the conventional alternatives used for jawbone grafts.
In modern times, graft composites, bone morphogenetic proteins and demineralized bone matrix are the modern bone graft materials used for grafting. You will need some time for the graft to “take” and heal before the placement of implants if need be.
Ridge Augmentation
This marks a popular procedure often done after tooth extraction to recreate your gums’ natural contour. Moreover, it is done to restore jawbone density that might have been lost after a tooth extraction or other gum conditions.
Bone grafting material is inserted into the socket of the tooth that has been extracted. This is followed by the placement of gum tissues and its suturing to secure it to the gums and boost the regrowth of jawbone tissue.
Socket Preservation
The loss of a tooth damages the socket that holds it in place and causes jaw deformity. Socket preservation is an ideal procedure for the prevention and treatment of jawbone deterioration. The process will improve your smile and the chances of successful implant surgery.
There are multiple procedures for socket preservation in dentistry. In the most common method, the socket is covered using tissue stimulating proteins and artificial membranes that encourage jawbone growth.
Sinus Lifts
When you have had your upper back teeth extracted, your ridge bone resorbs while the sinus cavity expands. This causes the thinning of the bone between the oral cavity and sinuses. In a sinus lift, the dentist will push the sinus membrane lining away from your jaw before packing bone grafting material into the space left.
Implants will be placed once the graft material is fully integrated into your jawbone.
Not all patients with tooth loss need the above treatments. A dentist will thus use 3D scanning among other radiographic technologies to assess your jawbone before recommending treatment. This way, he/she is assured that your jawbone is adequate for the placement of implants.
