Why is a bone graft needed?
Bone grafting is performed to reverse the bone loss / destruction caused by periodontal disease, trauma, or ill fitting removable dentures. It is also used to augment bone to permit implant placement, such as augmenting bone in the sinus area for implant placement, or augmenting bone to enhance the fit and comfort of removable prostheses, or to enhance esthetics of a missing tooth site in the smile zone. When one loses a tooth, as in an extraction, the surrounding bone collapses. To preserve this bone for future implant placement or for esthetics, a bone graft is used. What are the types of bone graft? 1. autogenous – bone taken from one area of the patient and transplanted to another area requiring such grafting 2. allograft – either synthetic bone or bone from a bone bank (cadaver bone) 3. xenograft – bovine /cow bone Which graft is used and when and why? Autogenous bone is the “gold standard” and oftentimes has the most predictable results. This is described as the best type of graf
