Bone Grafting Before Implants: What to Expect

An implant needs enough healthy jawbone to hold it securely. When bone has been lost — often after a tooth has been missing for a while, or due to gum disease or injury — there may not be enough volume to anchor the post. A graft rebuilds that bone so the implant has a stable foundation.

This is closely tied to timing. As explained in what happens if you wait too long to replace a missing tooth, the jawbone shrinks once a tooth is gone, which is exactly the situation grafting is designed to correct.

During a graft, your dentist places bone material into the area that needs rebuilding. This material can come from a few different sources, and over the following months your body replaces it with your own new bone.

• Grafting material: May be your own bone, processed donor or animal bone, or a synthetic substitute — your dentist will explain which suits your case.
• The appointment: Usually done under local anesthetic; many minor grafts take under an hour.
• Small grafts: Sometimes done at the same time as a tooth extraction to preserve the socket.

For anxious patients, comfort options are available — our overview of sedation dentistry covers what can make procedures like this easier.

Healing time depends on the size of the graft. A small graft placed to preserve a socket may need only a few months before the implant can go in, while larger grafts can take longer to mature. Your dentist will monitor progress with imaging before moving to the next stage.

The upside is that once the graft has healed, the rest of your implant journey follows the usual path described in our dental implants cost and process guide. Grafting simply adds a preparatory chapter to that story.

Most patients are surprised by how manageable it is. Because it is done under anesthetic, you should not feel pain during the procedure, and afterward the discomfort is usually mild — comparable to a tooth extraction and controlled with over-the-counter pain relief and a soft-food diet for a few days.

As with any minor surgery, following your aftercare instructions closely gives you the best result. A Markham dentist will walk you through exactly how to care for the area while it heals.