Bone augmentation is the surgical treatment of patients whose bone hard tissues have undergone volumetric changes such that prosthetic treatments, especially dental implants, are no longer possible.
The volume of bone and its quality change over the course of a lifetime, so that with advancing age they decrease.
Also, if there is edentulousness at an early age, with the patient losing teeth in their youth without worrying about prosthetics for the remaining gaps, the available bone is reduced.
Implantology is the branch that deals with the rehabilitation of edentulous areas by inserting titanium devices at bone level.
These devices will mimic the tooth root, are biocompatible and have a high success rate.
More than 95% of inserted dental implants have a good prognosis of life, if the clinical steps have been carried out correctly and the patient complies with further indications and regular check-ups.
A prosthesis, which mimics the appearance of dental crowns, is attached to this titanium implant, also known to patients as a screw.
Advantages
Among the advantages of dental implant treatments, we mention the following:
No grinding of healthy teeth in the vicinity of edentulous gaps – classic prosthetics use teeth in the vicinity of edentulous gaps. These will be ground and prepared for the prosthesis to be attached to them.
Implantology avoids this grinding of healthy teeth, using the remaining bone as a support.
Prevents tooth migration – teeth neighboring edentulous spaces naturally migrate to the remaining uncovered areas.
Thus, over time, unprotected edentations can induce positional changes in neighboring teeth, with adverse consequences such as narrowing of the prosthetic space.
A reduced prosthetic space due to neighboring teeth migrating makes it impossible to place dental implants in the desired areas.
Implants inserted immediately after the appearance of edentulous teeth have the advantage that they can preserve the exposed remaining bone. Bone that is not stressed, such as bone not covered by the tooth, will atrophy over time due to lack of stress.
Dental implants mimic the natural tooth, so the forces will continue to be transmitted to the underlying bone, maintaining its vitality.
In order to be performed, implant surgery requires adequate bone volume, a cooperative patient able to maintain strict oral hygiene and qualified staff trained for the situations encountered in the dental office.
Bone augmentation is used for patients who require dental implants but do not have enough hard, bony tissue, thus requiring additional intervention.
Sometimes patients come to the practice for implants many years after losing their teeth, so dental implants cannot be placed without prior bone preparation.
In order to benefit from implant therapy, the bone must be restored using special bone augmentation techniques involving the addition of materials (autologous bone or bovine bone, synthetic materials) which must be stabilized at the defect and covered with soft tissue.
The patient must then wait for the body to form and organize the bone tissue at that level.
The implant is then inserted, followed by the osseo-acceptance stage.
After all this time the patient will be able to receive a prosthetic restoration on implants.
