Tooth Socket Graft
New Bedford, Falmouth, & Hyannis, MA
Tooth Socket Graft provided by Dr. Gus Dehni
and Dr. Chris Webb
in New Bedford, Falmouth, & Hyannis, MA at Center for Advanced Periodontics and Implant Dentistry
 We know that you may think we love taking people’s teeth out - dental practitioners have been known for that for hundreds of years. However, when it comes to extracting a tooth, we think of it as a loss, the same way you do - depending on which tooth we remove. Wisdom teeth are no big deal because those teeth are “extra”, and you don’t need them. However, when we have to extract a tooth that is not your wisdom tooth, we see that as a loss. Not only could we not save the tooth, but we have to leave an empty socket in its place. The good news is, there are ways we can replace the tooth you lost with an implant. Depending on how long ago you had a tooth extracted, we may need to do a little work on your socket first. In many cases, this means we need to do a tooth socket graft. If you’re not sure what that is, give Center for Advanced Periodontics and Implant Dentistry a few minutes to talk to you about tooth socket grafts.
Why Does An Empty Space Need Filling?
Children usually have a lot of space for teeth in their mouths. They needed all of that extra space, because their permanent teeth are more prominent than their baby teeth, and they needed plenty of room to come in. But after you have all of your permanent teeth, you most likely don’t have as much space in your mouth as you used to. That’s not a problem if you don’t lose teeth as an adult, but if you do, you may have problems in your mouth.
As an adult, you can lose teeth because of an accident or an injury. Accidents and injuries can cause trauma to your mouth, and they can break or crack your teeth. If we can’t fix those teeth, we have no choice but to remove them. You might also lose teeth because of tooth decay or gum disease. When a tooth becomes so severely infected that we can’t save it, it has to be removed to protect the other teeth in your mouth from infection. Tooth removal doesn’t sound like a big problem, but it can lead to problems over time. That’s because as people lose teeth, the body looks for balance in your mouth. The body could try to balance out your mouth by shifting teeth around to cover for the missing tooth. This might cause you big problems further down the road with your jaw. Your body might begin to take the bone away from your jaw because it thinks you no longer need it. If your jawbone begins to weaken, not only will you lose bone mass, you might lose tissue where your missing tooth used to be.
What Is A Tooth Socket Graft?
Tooth socket grafts allow us to replace bone and tissue you may have lost when you had a tooth extracted. If we do a tooth socket graft immediately when we extract a tooth, your other teeth won’t have time to move around, and there’ll be no time for your jaw to deteriorate. To do a tooth socket graft, we take the tooth out, if it isn’t out already. We make sure the area of your tooth is free from infection or damage from trauma. Then, we can do a bone graft. While you usually think of a bone as hard, bone grafts are soft, and they harden over time. After we place the bone into your empty socket, we then place a membrane over it, and suture it closed. We’ll have to wait a little while to place an implant to give your socket a chance to heal.
Have you suffered a tooth loss? We can help. Let us replace the tooth you lost with a tooth socket graft and an implant. Give Center for Advanced Periodontics and Implant Dentistry a call at 508-996-3131.
|
