Tooth Socket Graft
Encinitas, CA
 When we have to extract a tooth, we don’t see it as a victory in most cases. Instead, we see it as a loss. That’s because when we remove a tooth, we leave an empty socket. Sometimes an empty socket is ok. In fact, we leave empty sockets all the time when we remove a wisdom tooth.
While one wisdom tooth socket is not that big of a deal, it is different when you have a lot of empty sockets, or sockets that are causing problems for your mouth. If your socket is located in a spot where you really need a tooth, you may have to fill it with something as a replacement. We may need to replace an empty socket with a graft for a tooth instead. Give Encinitas Periodontics & Dental Implants a minute to tell you about tooth socket grafts.
Why Does An Empty Space Need Filling?
When you were younger, you probably had a lot of space to fill in your mouth. The spaces in your mouth needed to be big, so that your permanent teeth would have room to grow. However, once all of your permanent teeth have come in, there’s no new teeth that will be growing. While this is great for adults, it can create problems if you happen to lose teeth as an adult.
Adults lose teeth through accidents or injuries, which can cause trauma to the teeth and make teeth break or crack. Adults can also lose teeth because of gum disease or tooth decay. Both sudden losses of teeth and gradual losses of teeth can cause problems. Researchers know that when people lose their teeth, the body tries to restore balance in your mouth. Your body tries to restore balance by having your teeth shift around to cover the spaces left by your missing teeth. This could cause you to have bite problems. You may also begin to have problems with your jaw. Your jaw might become weaker because your body takes bone away from the area since there is no tooth there. Over time, this will reduce the amount of both bone and tissue in the socket.
What Is A Tooth Socket Graft?
When we do a tooth socket graft, we replace both the bone and the tissue that you lose when you lose your tooth - however, you might have happened to lose it. When we can do a tooth socket graft right away after you lose your tooth, that gives the other teeth no time to move around to take the place of your lost tooth. To do a tooth socket graph, we need to take the tooth out - if it hasn’t already fallen out.
If we extract your tooth, then we make sure the area is free of damage and infection. We can then give you a bone graft. You might think the bone graft is hard, but it is actually soft when we first do the graft. As it heals, the bone graft gets harder. Once we do the bone graft, we place a membrane over it, so that it can heal. We will then suture the area closed. Socket grafts can take as little as a few weeks to as long as a few months to heal. After your graft heals, we can place your implant.
If you have suffered a tooth loss, we can help you replace the tooth you lost with a tooth socket graft. Give Encinitas Periodontics & Dental Implants a call at 760-632-9055 and let us talk to you about this bone graft.
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