Tooth Socket Graft

After a tooth has been removed, it is important to preserve the tooth socket to prevent further complications. Star28 Dental Clinic offers tooth socket grafting to ensure that the socket remains healthy after tooth removal, and to prevent any structural changes within the mouth. Tooth socket grafting isn’t necessarily needed if a dental implant is being placed soon after. Talk to one of our dentists and they can advise you on our restorative procedures. 

Why Do I Need a Tooth Socket Graft?

A tooth socket graft is important to preserve the socket and the bone surrounding it. When a tooth is removed, and nothing fills its place for some time, the jaw begins to shrink around the area. The body detects there is no tooth, so protection from the jawbone isn’t needed, which leads to structural changes in a patient’s face. Tooth socket grafting prevents bone shrinkage, by filling in the tooth socket with graft material and holding the tooth socket in the same shape. It also prevents any neighboring teeth from shifting and becoming misaligned, as they attempt to fill the space between the teeth.  

The preservation of the tooth socket shape, via the graft material, is in a patient’s best interest, as it means any procedures further down the line, such as a dental implant, will be easier and more straightforward for our dentists. Tooth socket grafting may not appear as vital at the time of the tooth extraction, but it avoids further complications down the line. 

Care

After our dentist has removed the tooth, they will carefully pack the bone grafting material into the tooth socket. The bone grafting material is made up of a number of different minerals, synthetic material and bone, to encourage the healing process of the extraction site. 

Although the bone grafting material will differ slightly from patient to patient, the consistency is often like wet sand. This is why you may feel grain-like minerals in your mouth for a few days after the procedure. This is perfectly normal, although you want to minimize the amount of graft material that becomes dislodged from the extraction site. 

To ensure the graft material is sturdy, and the gum has begun to accept it, there are a number of precautions you will need to take in the first few days. Rinsing your mouth, brushing your teeth, blowing your nose and pulling the lip down to see the bone graft material can all seriously affect the healing process, and cause the grafting material to become dislodged. After 48 hours you will be able to brush and rinse your mouth, but carefully, as the site is still delicate. Our dentists will be able to inform you of the proper and detailed recovery plan for a tooth socket graft. 

A tooth socket graft is a painless procedure that Star28 Dental Clinic offers to help preserve a patient’s facial structure. It needs good after treatment care, but the risk of further complications is relatively low, as long as the patient follows our advice. To book your consultation appointment now, call us at (714) 523-2828.