Bone Grafting, Baltimore MD

Bone grafting is a surgical procedure to replace missing bone with material either from the patient’s own body or a natural or synthetic substitute. Bone grafting is performed with the aim of stimulating new bone formation in the body.

Teeth are surrounded by and anchored to the alveolar bone of the jaws. Teeth can only grind and chew food normally if they have adequate alveolar bone support. Without enough alveolar bone, the jaws cannot support either natural teeth or dental implants. There are many reasons for alveolar bone loss. For example, teeth and bone can be lost from an injury, as a result of periodontal disease, and frequently following tooth removal as the alveolar bone remodels over time.

We can harvest bone from one part of your body (lower jaw, hip, or chin) and graft it to the area of bone loss in your jaw (autogenous grafts). We can also use natural freeze-dried bone or synthetic bone graft substitutes.

An exciting development with bone grafting is the development of recombinant human bone morphogenic protein (rhBMP) that is now available through our practice. INFUSE® Bone Graft is surgically placed where new bone growth is needed. It attracts your body’s own bone-building cells to the site and forms new bone over time. Bone grows where the INFUSE® Bone Graft is placed with predictable results. We may recommend using INFUSE® Bone to re-grow your own bone.

It is estimated that more than 350,000 bone-grafting procedures to the jaws are performed in the United States each year. Autogenous bone grafts, or bone harvested from other parts of the patient such as the ilium (hip), lower jaw, or chin, are currently the standard grafting procedure used for these patients. INFUSE® Bone Graft offers surgeons and their patients an alternative to autogenous bone grafting, reducing patients’ pain, limiting scarring, and reducing surgical time. INFUSE® Bone Graft is also an alternative for bone grafting procedures that do not commonly use autogenous bone grafts, such as alveolar ridge augmentation associated with extraction site procedures.

Sinus Lift Procedure

A sinus augmentation, or “sinus lift,” is a surgical bone grafting procedure that is performed in the maxillary sinus cavity. The maxillary sinus cavity is a hollow area in your cheekbone above the alveolar bone that anchors your upper molars.  A sinus lift is required to prepare this site for the placement of dental implants in patients with too little existing bone. In these cases we recommend a combination of INFUSE® Bone Graft mixed with freeze-dried bone for the sinus lift procedure. The bone graft is placed on the sinus floor through a small incision inside your mouth. After several months of healing, the grafted bone on the sinus floor becomes part of the patient’s jaw. Dental implants can then be inserted and stabilized in this new sinus bone.

If the patient has enough bone between the upper jaw ridge and the bottom of the to stabilize a dental implant, then sinus augmentation and implant placement can be performed as a single procedure. If not enough bone is available, the sinus augmentation will have to be performed first, and the implants will be placed once the bone graft has healed. The sinus graft makes it possible for many patients to have dental implants when years ago there was no other option besides wearing loose dentures.

 

Ridge Augmentation

At the time a tooth is removed, a localized alveolar ridge augmentation may be recommended if the patient is considering a dental implant to replace the missing tooth. This procedure involves placing a synthetic bone graft directly into the empty socket where a tooth’s roots used to be. We can also perform ridge augmentation after an extraction socket has healed if the patient desires a dental implant but does not have sufficient bone available.

Typically, freeze-dried bone is used as the augmentation material in those cases of grafting immediately following tooth extraction.  In those cases where the extraction sockets have already healed, autogenous bone harvested from the patient’s lower jaw or a combination of freeze-dried bone and INFUSE® Bone Graft is used.

Major Bone Grafting

Major bone grafting is typically performed to repair extensive defects of the jaws. These defects may arise as a result of traumatic injuries, tumor surgery, or congenital defects. Large defects are repaired using a combination of the patient’s own bone, synthetic bone graft substitutes, and INFUSE® Bone Graft. These procedures are usually performed in a hospital operating room under general anesthesia and may require a hospital stay.