How Lasers Assist With Jawbone Grafting

The loss of our natural teeth could mean serious trouble for the smile. The gradual breakdown in mass and density that follows often leads to additional tooth loss, and could lead your smile too weak to support dental implants. However, your Encinitas/San Diego, CA, periodontist could help with laser-assisted jawbone grafting!

What Happens to Your Smile Following Tooth Loss

Once your body registers a missing tooth root, it suspends the flow of calcium and phosphates to the impacted area. Without these nutrients, the jaw loses mass and density, breaking down to cause further tooth loss and a prematurely aged appearance. This weakened structure is also unable to support dental implants. But we can rebuild what has been lost with a ridge augmentation, also known as jawbone grafting. We also employ advanced dental lasers as part of the process!

Ridge Augmentation

To ensure your smile can support new dental implants, we need to make sure there is a solid base, which means augmenting the weakened portions of the jaw. The procedure involves numbing the area being treated and then administering a dental sedation to ensure you’re comfortable and relaxed throughout the surgical experience. Tissue is then added to these areas, taken from the rear of your jaw or from your hip, or from a donor or synthetic source. The tissues create a matrix for new tissues to adhere to, rebuilding the weakened areas and providing a foundation that can support one or more dental implants. When the area heals, we will then guide the dental implants into place. They bond with the jaw through osseointegration, which prevents the area from losing mass and density again, so your new teeth can last for decades.

Assistance with Dental Lasers

Our team can employ dental lasers specially calibrated for this procedure. We can use them to modify and reshape hard tissues, including tooth roots and jawbone tissue. We then prepare the jaw and tooth roots to receive these new tissue grafts. The use of this technology helps ensure a minimally invasive process, and one with a reduced risk of complications afterward, such as swelling, bleeding, or infection. This offers a comfortable treatment experience as well. If you have any questions about how we use dental lasers as part of our jawbone grafting procedure, or if you would like to talk about replacing missing teeth with dental implants, then contact our team today to learn more.

Your Encinitas/San Diego, CA Periodontist Preserves Your Smile

We offer ridge augmentation to strengthen your smile and preserve your youthful features. If you would like to find out more about preparing your smile to receive dental implants, then please call Dr. Kania’s laser periodontal office in Encinitas/San Diego, CA, at (760) 642-0711.