Your Jawbone And Dental Implants: 3 Ways That Getting Implants Will Affect Your Bone Growth
Posted on: 19 January 2016
You may not know it, but your jawbone changes throughout your life via a process called bone remodeling. In this process, mature bone tissue is removed to make way for new bone tissue. This process never stops, no matter how old you get. However, there are some conditions that can affect the process. For example, tooth loss, periodontal disease and trauma can all result in the loss of bone tissue, making it difficult to place implants properly. Implants themselves, however, can affect bone growth in positive ways. The following are three ways implants affect jawbone growth or bone remodeling.
Surgical Bone Replacement
If your jawbone is too soft or thin to receive implants, you may experience a sudden surge in bone mass thanks to a procedure called bone grafting. In this procedure, your dentist transplants bone harvested from your chin, upper jawbone or hip joint onto the bone of your jaw. Not only does the transplant increase your bone mass, it stimulates new bone growth. During the 9 months following this procedure, your jawbone will grow at an accelerated rate.
Accelerated Bone Growth
Dental implants are placed over the course of several months and involve at least two procedures. In the first, your dentist places an abutment or metal post into your jawbone and covers it with gum tissue. The post serves two purposes. It will eventually serve as the base for your crown or the visible portion of your dental implant. It is also used to stimulate bone growth before your procedure. Once in place, the post stimulates bone growth at an accelerated rate. The goal is for your jawbone to grow around the implant and become fused to it. It can take up to 6 months for this to occur.
Implant Bone Remodeling
Bone remodeling requires stimulation in order to occur. When you have natural teeth, the pressure that you exert on them when you chew and bite down transfers to your jawbone, stimulating growth. When you lose your teeth, however, the bone receives no such stimulation and actually starts to deteriorate. Removable dentures exert some pressure against the jawbone, but it is not enough to maintain bone mass.
Dental implants act like natural teeth. As such, they offer as much stimulation as your natural teeth. Therefore, you can expect the bone remodeling process to continue after dental implant surgery just as it did when you had natural teeth.
Dental implants affect jawbone growth significantly. Not only is more bone added or grown before and after the placement of the post, dental implants continue to stimulate new bone growth indefinitely. Contact dentists like Smile 312: Harvey Jay Muhler DDS to find out more about dental implants.
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