Do you have jaw and facial pain? Did you know that it may be because of the missing teeth you hadn’t replaced, and misaligned teeth? Yes, many people in Albany don’t replace their lost teeth and end up suffering from consequent jaw bone loss. Dr. Steven Kobayashi offers a solution in the form of bone grafting.
Call Dr. Steven Kobayashi today at (510) 962-9530 to schedule an appointment.
What Happens When You Don’t Replace Lost Teeth?
If you wonder how missing teeth can lead to jaw bone loss, it’s because your body keeps depositing new bone cells, and removing old ones. It proves to be both harmful and helpful to your jaw bone.
It’s the adaptability that helps orthodontists rightly position misaligned teeth with the help of braces. However, adult tooth loss can lead to deteriorating bone changes if you lose or remove a tooth and don’t replace it. The surrounding bones tend to melt or shrink away with tooth loss, and if you have periodontal gum disease. The more bone and teeth you lose, the more aged you look because of sagging facial features.
The bone won’t grow back but can be encouraged to fill in with the help of bone grafting.
Dr. Steven Kobayashi uses modern bone grafting-techniques to rebuild the lost bone. It strengthens your jawbone to improve both your health and appearance with better tooth replacement.
Other Contributing Factors for Jaw Bone Loss
• Periodontal disease
• Misaligned teeth prohibiting proper chewing
• Unanchored dentures
• Jaw bone infections
• Problems caused by lack of strong jawbones
• Loose or teeth that fall out
• Sinus problems
• Jaw and facial pain
• Wrinkles around the jaws and mouth
• Sagged facial appearance
Dental Jaw Bone Grafting Treatment for Albany Residents
Dr. Steven Kobayashi offers dental jaw bone grafting treatment to help restore the lost jaw bone. Bone grafting also stimulates the re-growth of natural bone, and consequent jaw bone restoration to reverse the adverse bone loss effects.
The Procedure
Bone grafting is a safe and minimally invasive minor surgical procedure that Dr. Kobayashi performs at his dental office. It is performed under local anesthesia administered through oral or IV.
We first make an incision in your gum to add grafting material to the bone under it. The grafting material used is taken from the patient. Dr. Kobayashi drills the bone from another area of the mouth and suctions out the bone fragments to use as a graft.
We also use cadaver bone fragments that are harvested by bone banks, which are a safe bone donation source.
Once we place the grafting material, it acts as a scaffold for your body to build a new bone and strengthen your jaw bone.
There may be some soreness after the surgery for a day or two because of the incision. Dr. Kobayashi will prescribe ice therapy and some over-the-counter inflammatory medication and/or pain killers to manage the pain.
The pain is worth it. Your body will slowly replace the graft with its bone over the next few months and reverse the bone loss effects.
Where Bone Grafting Helps
Dr. Kobayashi uses bone grafting to treat various dental conditions like:
• Save teeth
Severe periodontal disease can induce bone loss to loosen your teeth and risk its loss. Regenerating the surrounding bone through grafting increases bone support and helps save, and keep your teeth in place.
• After tooth extraction
Bone grafting is often deposited into a tooth socket after tooth removal, for tooth replacement with a dental implant later on.
• Dental implants
A dental implant involves embedding a small titanium post with a realistic dental crown in the jawbone to replace missing teeth permanently. However, it’s possible and successful only if you have good jaw bone volume and density. Bone grafting helps generate enough bone for a healthy jaw bone and a successful dental implant.
Even areas suffering from total bone collapse benefit from bone grafting. In short, acting as quickly as possible to replace missed teeth is the best way to preserve your jaw bone.