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What to Expect After Bone Grafting
If you don’t have enough bone tissue, grafting may be your only option to move forward with treatments like dental implants. If you’re considering bone grafting, you’re probably anxious about what the recovery process will look like.
Cannon Oral Surgery performs bone grafting procedures for many Chattanooga, Tennessee, residents and can guide you through what to expect during the process.
When is bone grafting necessary?
A healthy jawbone is dense, strong, and properly formed. But many things can cause you to lose some of that tissue over time. Without sufficient bone tissue, several dental treatments could fail over time or be impossible at all.
Here are some of the dental treatments that rely on healthy, dense jawbone tissue:
- Create a base for dental implants
- Build up bone tissue after an extraction
- Rebuild the jaw before getting dentures
- Lift maxillary sinuses before dental implants
- Support and stabilize loose teeth
- Increase the volume and width of the jawbone
- Restore bone after losses from gum disease
As you can see, bone grafting is a versatile treatment option that can improve dental health in various ways. The grafting material used in your procedure can come from your own bone tissue, bone from an animal donor, or bone from a human cadaver donor. No matter what type of bone is used, it’s thoroughly processed and prepared before the grafting procedure.
What should I expect from the recovery process after bone grafting?
Because bone grafting requires incisions in your gum tissue, it’s considered a type of oral surgery. You’ll receive numbing medication before the procedure begins, and it can take a few hours for those meds to wear off. So the initial hours after your grafting are not likely to be uncomfortable.
As the medication wears away, it’s normal to have some soreness and pain in the area where the grafting was done. Most people can manage this discomfort with over-the-counter pain medication and an ice pack applied to the cheek.
The initial phase of recovery lasts around a week. During that time, expect your gums and jaw to feel sore, and take care to avoid applying excess pressure to the area. Choose soft foods and try to avoid the surgical site while eating.
Once the initial recovery phase ends, your body continues to work hard to form new bone tissue in the treatment area. You can support this process by eating a diet rich in nutritious foods and staying properly hydrated.
If you’re having bone grafting done in preparation for another treatment like dental implants or dentures, you’ll have a follow-up visit in a few months to track the progress of your new bone development.
Still wondering if bone grafting is right for you?
If you still have questions or concerns about the bone grafting procedure and whether it’s a good fit for your needs, we welcome you to come in for a one-on-one consultation with Dr. Cannon. You can explore various treatment options, including what to expect if you decide to forgo treatment altogether.
Our goal at Cannon Oral Surgery is to provide you with everything you need to make an informed decision about your care. When you’re ready to come in and sit down with Dr. Cannon, you can set up that visit using our easy online scheduling tool. Of course, phone booking is also available if you prefer.