Hi, my name is Dr Fong, I’m the principal dentist of Dental House Group. Yesterday a patient Greage asked me, do I need bone grafting for my dental implant? I thought I’d make a quick video sharing my thoughts on this particular topic.

Bone grafting is a procedure done to boost the quantity of the bone around the dental implant either before or during an implant procedure. So the simple answer is, if you don’t have enough bone to place a dental implant, then some form of bone grafting is required.

There are some areas in the mouth where bone grafting is very common. The first location is at the front of your mouth. Usually, the bone around the upper front teeth are quite thin, and because this is also an area where aesthetics is important, bone grafting is therefore very common here.

Another place where bone grafting is common is around the upper back teeth. In this area, you have the walls of the maxillary sinus, which is essentially a space filled with air and nothing else. So when placing implants around this area, you may need some additional bone height before placing a dental implant.

Bone grafting can add to the overall cost of procedure, and we only recommend it when it is necessary. Sometimes if you don’t have enough bone, we might be able to use a smaller sized implant. However, in many cases you can’t compromise, because placing a smaller implant at the back of your mouth where all the chewing occurs, may increase the chance of implant failure. So speak with your dentist to make sure you are not compromising the success of your treatment in the long run.

The other way to avoid having bone grafting is having your implants done within the first 3 months of extracting the tooth. Many people don’t know that once a tooth is extracted, you will lose 50% of the bone within the first 12 months. So placing an implant as soon as possible, will reduce the chance of you requiring bone grafting and reduce the overall cost for your implant procedure in the future.

Sometimes if your soft tissue quality is not good enough, in addition to bone grafting, you may also need a soft tissue or gum graft.

As you can see, there are many factors to be considered, such as the volume of bone you have, or the quality of the soft tissues around the bone. So it’s a bit difficult to get an actual quote without a comprehensive examination because every case is different.

If you have a missing tooth and want a professional opinion to replace it, as a Master Clinician in Implantology, we would love to help. Simply complete the form on the website, give us a call on 1800GENTLE, or send us a direct message on social media, and we will help you organise your appointment. See you in the next video.

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