Bone addition is an intervention through which the deepening, broadening and volumetric increasing of the mandible or jaw bone is realised. This procedure is necessary when bone stock is so thin that it no longer allows the insertion of dental implants.

Following tooth extraction, the alveolar process occurs over the resorption of bone. After tooth extraction, in the first year is lost 25% of the initial volume of the bone within which the tooth is located. Then, the bone resorption continues in a slower way so that three years after extraction, bone resorption is 40% -60%, and five years after the extraction, which originally had a bone thickness 8 mm may come to have a thickness of less than 3 mm. Therefore, quite often, it requires dental surgery including an intervention of bone addition, especially when the affected area of ​​the oral cavity has esthetic impact. Bone augmentation is required when you want to insert an implant in a region that has highly mastication impact. Increasing bone volume, an implant with a large diameter and length can be inserted, ensuring greater stability and facing up better the masticatory forces. Bone addition can be performed in the same session with the insertion of implants, but is rather a separate action, depending on the defect. Although bone addition intervention is complex, the patient will feel like a routine dental surgery, whereas working with local anesthesia and after surgery the patient is given pain relievers, so discomfort is minimal.

The materials used for bone addition are autogenous bone marrow (collected from the patient whom is performed the procedure), the replacement of bone harvested from the animals treated, the periodontal membrane, products based on calcium phosphate, etc.

Autogenous bone

It is harvested from the patient in the region of the oral cavity and is inserted in the area where it is desired to restore the bone defect, it offers very good results. This method has the disadvantage that the harvesting of the bone is necessary to conduct an additional surgery, and thus, there is an extra intervention for the patient.

Animal bone replacement

The most used is bovine bone treated and sterilized, so as not to appear rejection reactions or infections. Although it is considered that after the bone addition, the added bone becomes the patient’s own bone, this idea is often false. Overall, after the interventions of bone augmentation, autogenous bone is stimulated to recover, added artificial bone just providing support for the patient’s bone cells. Following the surgical procedure of bone augmentation, as own bone grows in size, artificial bone is reabsorbed and eliminated.

Sinus lift surgery

Oral rehabilitation of patients with implants is very difficult when tooth loss affects posterior teeth of the upper jaw. After tooth extraction, bone loss is often accompanied by an increase in the size of the maxillary sinus so that the insertion of implants in this area would be difficult without the bone addition and there is danger of placing implants in the maxillary sinus. The intervention which increases the volume of bone stock in this area is called sinus lift, maxillary sinus surgery within sinus is “lifted”, hence the name “sinus lift”, later lower portion of the sinus becoming bone.