Can You Get Dental Implants With Bone Loss? Restoring Options

For patients experiencing bone loss, the prospects of getting dental implants can seem discouraging or impossible. However, several advanced bone grafting techniques now make implants attainable even with diminished jawbone health or availability. This article illuminates the latest methods for regenerating lost bone to provide sturdy foundations facilitating implant integration.

Causes and Ramifications of Progressing Bone Loss

Bone loss occurs for diverse reasons – gum disease, tooth extraction aftermath, ill-fitting dentures, genetic disorders and simple aging. Regardless of the catalyst, diminishing jawbone jeopardizes both your oral and systemic health. Teeth become increasingly loose and unstable lacking solid bony anchors. You also risk the bone literally melting away now lacking stimulus and blood supply from missing tooth roots. This accelerates collapsing facial structure and wrinkling skin making you appear much older than your years.

Rebuilding Bone to Withstand Implant Forces 

Because implants fuse right into the jawbone itself, adequate density and volume are mandatory. Implants experience substantial biting forces reaching up to 170 pounds per square inch. So deficient bone unable to withstand such loads risks rejected integration or actual fracture. That’s why rebuilding decimated bone through grafting provides the durable scaffolding implants required for longevity.

Grafting Materials to Regenerate New Growth

Numerous grafting materials now available regenerate lost bone to facilitate implants:

• Autografts utilize bone harvested from your jaw, chin or hip to encourage new bone in extracted sites. This natural material spurs the fastest regeneration timeline.
• Allografts use freeze-dried bone from tissue banks allowing for greater quantities.  
• Xenografts involve bovine bone cells prompting steady re-growth.
• Synthetic variants like BMP mimic bone cell properties to stimulate vigorous production.

With advanced 3D imaging, we precisely place graft material helping you quickly regain the stability needed for implants. Grafting builds up atrophied ridges, fills extraction voids, and stabilizes implants in one integrated procedure so you enjoy an accelerated path to your final smile.

Gene and Stem Cell Therapies Show Promise

As grafting options expand, researchers make advances harnessing gene and stem cell technology to regrow natural bone. Gene therapy delivers bone formation genes directly to the graft site via viral vectors initiating vigorous native tissue regeneration. Stem cells derived from the patient’s own fat or blood promote similar activity. Both innovations could mean shorter graft integration and healing periods in the very near future.

Partnering Together For Your Ideal Smile  

While bone loss historically presented imposing barriers to implant dentistry, current grafting innovations and emerging gene and stem cell therapies now offer more patients better opportunities than ever before. We feel extremely privileged to collaborate as partners in restoring vibrant confidence to your smile regardless of any challenges you face. Let’s meet to start thoroughly mapping out your possibilities so you can make fully informed decisions to achieve your ideal smile goals!