When you lose natural teeth, a major complication is often the loss of mass and density in your jaw. Over time, this could negatively impact your appearance and prevent you from being able to receive dental implants to address your lost teeth! But with oral surgery, we can strengthen your jaw again. In today’s blog, your team at Cerritos Dental Surgery talks about helping smiles in Cerritos, CA, with jawbone grafting.
How Tooth Loss Weakens Your Jawbone
How does losing a tooth weaken your overall smile? When you lose a tooth, the body will respond by suspending the flow of calcium and phosphorus to the area around the missing root. Without these regular doses of nutrients, the jawbone gradually weakens and erodes, eventually leading to further tooth loss. You could also develop an aged appearance, with sunken cheeks and even a ptotic chin. This could mean there is too little structure left to support dental implants, limiting your ability to tackle your tooth loss. But we can help strengthen the lower and upper jaw with grafting and sinus lift procedures, so your smile can support new teeth and you can avoid losing your youthful facial structures.
The Ridge Augmentation Procedure
With a jawbone grafting, also known as a ridge augmentation, we will numb your lower jaw and then apply new tissues to it, which bonds with the jaw and provides new structures to encourage tissue growth and keep your smile intact, while at the same time creating a base that can support one or more dental implants, so you can enjoy a full smile that truly lasts for years to come.
With a ridge augmentation, we will take bone tissues from other parts of your body, such as the rear of your jaw, your hip, or your knee. We could also use synthetic materials or possibly donor tissues.
A Sinus Lift
What about the upper portions of your smile? If you have serious erosion in the upper area and this prevents you from receiving dental implants, then our team could offer a procedure known as a sinus lift. With this option, we will surgically lift the sinus floor to uncover new structures that can support one or more dental implants. Once the dental implants are in place, this helps further strengthen the treated areas to prevent erosion and tooth loss, so your new teeth can last for years to come, possibly decades.
If you have any questions about jawbone grafting and sinus lift procedures, then contact our team today to learn more and get started.
TALK TO OUR TEAM ABOUT RIDGE AUGMENTATION
To schedule a consultation for jawbone grafting, then make an appointment with Cerritos Dental Surgery in California call 562-584-4082 today.
