San Fernando Valley Oral Surgery&Implant Center

What is a Bone Augmentation?

Bone augmentation, also referred to as bone grafting, is a procedure typically needed when the current bone mass of your jaw is not suitable to successfully incorporate dental implants. Luckily, in this day and age, our doctors are able to grow bone where it is needed. When bone mass is too thin or soft to keep an implant in place, a bone augmentation will help so the bone can fuse to the dental implant and keep it secure. If a dental implant is placed in the jaw where bone structure is not sufficient, the likelihood of an implant failing increases.

Reasons For Bone Augmentation

The number one reason for bone augmentation surgery is bone loss. The bone in your jaw maintains its health through the constant motion and pressure of chewing. Because of this, a missing tooth or multiple missing teeth that are left unreplaced will cause the bone in your jaw to break down and resorb. Even if a tooth has only been missing for one year, 25% of the bone has already been lost within that short time. To avoid bone loss, replacing the lost natural tooth with an immediate dental implant is recommended. Other causes of bone loss that are not as common, include misaligned teeth, gum disease, infection, and tumors in the face.

What To Expect

Length of Procedure

Bone augmentation procedures typically take less than 30 minutes. You can expect to be in our office 1.5 to 2 hours which accounts for consultation, procedure and in-office recovery time.

Before Your Appointment

At Home

Do not eat or drink anything for at least 8 hours before your IV sedated procedure. This means no food, water, mints or gum.Please make arrangements for someone to stay with you at the office, through your procedure and drive you home after the procedure.

If you normally wear contacts, we ask you wear your glasses the day of the procedure, as well as a short sleeve shirt.Patient paperwork can be filled out here. If you have filled out the paperwork online, prior to your appointment, please arrive 5 to 10 minutes early. If you would like to fill out your paperwork at the office, the day of your procedure, arrive 20 minutes prior.

At The Office

Patients 18 years or younger will need a guardian present to sign a consent form.If your dentist or physician has taken x-rays, you may forward them or bring them to our office. If additional films are necessary, they can be taken at our office.

Before the procedure, a dental assistant will go over your medical history. Your doctor will also visit you to answer any questions or concerns you may have. If you have concerns about medications, please call prior to your procedure so we can contact your physician.

Tips For A Speedy Recovery

After Your Procedure

After your procedure, you may notice some of the bone particulates working their way out of the socket. This may feel “gritty” in the mouth. This is completely normal and no cause for concern. In some cases, a membrane placed over the socket will come loose after a couple of weeks; this is also no cause for concern. We will remove the membrane as needed at your follow up appointment. As the bone augmentation site heals, you will come in for follow-up appointments with your oral surgeon every few weeks to ensure the bone is healing properly. Once completely healed, you will be scheduled for your dental implant to be placed.

Recovery Instructions

After your procedure, a nurse will take you to one of our state-of-the-art recovery rooms. Our rooms are equipped with high-tech monitoring to ensure your safety.
We will inform your driver when you are in recovery and show them to your room to go over recovery instructions.
Your nurse will stay to answer any other questions you may have before leaving our office and will send printed recovery instructions home with you for your convenience.
When you get home, we recommend a lot of rest, icing and to begin taking your pain medication before existing numbness wears off.
We will send you home with a recovery kit that includes extra gauze and gloves for bleeding.
Slight to severe tingling of the lip, chin and tongue is normal and will be temporary.
Take off work/school the day of your procedure, as well as the following day. You may want to take off more days depending on how you feel.
After your procedure, enjoy a cup of gourmet ice cream on us!

Recover with Ease

Your procedure is over, now what? Watch as we review everything the nurses covered in your post-op recovery. This video is full of basic recovery instructions and tips to help you achieve a speedy recovery.

Bone Augmentation