Bone Repair

It is a natural phenomenon that after teeth have been removed the bone that once supported them slowly resorbs away. This occurs faster when prolonged gum problems have been present or poorly fitting dentures are being worn. The result is that there is sometimes not enough bone to support implants.

When there is not enough bone present, it may be necessary to create new bone to fill in missing areas allowing implants to be fitted. A variety of techniques are available to do this and these are referred to as 'bone grafting'.

The most common bone grafting procedure is known as Guided Bone Regeneration. This simple technique uses either a synthetic or animal based material to help regenerate your own bone. In some cases where larger amounts of bone are needed, it is possible to move bone from other areas of the mouth (a donor site) to the deficient area (the recipient site). The area from which the donor bone is taken will re-grow. Some patients unfortunately may have suffered with extensive bone loss. It is still possible to reconstruct the missing bone volume using more advanced techniques. This usually involves using a donor site, such as bone from the hip, to repair the recipient site.

Where the clinical conditions indicate that bone grafting is required to increase the amount of bone into which implants