Bone Grafting
Rebuilding bone where there is not enough to place an implant.
New patients welcome — we'll confirm your time by phone.
Book a consult→About bone grafting.
Bone shrinks where a tooth has been missing for a while, and sometimes there is not enough left to hold an implant. Grafting adds material to the site, which your own bone then grows into and replaces over months.
There are smaller versions of this: a socket graft placed at the moment a tooth is taken out, which preserves the ridge rather than rebuilding it later, is considerably simpler than grafting the same site in two years' time.
A socket graft at the time of extraction often avoids a bigger graft later.
Healing is months — the graft has to be replaced by your own bone.
Smoking markedly reduces the success rate.
Not every thin site needs grafting; a scan decides it.
Results vary. Your treatment plan depends on an exam. Nothing on this page is a promise about how your own treatment will turn out.
What actually happens, in order.
A 3D scan showing exactly how much bone there is and where.
Material placed under local anaesthetic and covered with a membrane.
Months, while your own bone replaces the graft.
A new scan confirms the volume before the implant goes in.
Questions we get.
If yours is not here, ask when you book — it is a better answer in person anyway.
Where does the graft material come from?
It can be your own bone, processed donor or animal-derived material, or a synthetic. Which is appropriate depends on the site, and we go through it before anything is booked.
Is it painful?
It is done numb, with soreness and swelling for a few days afterwards, managed with ordinary painkillers and the aftercare instructions you are given.
Will it definitely work?
No graft is guaranteed. Health, smoking and the size of the defect all affect it, and a scan afterwards confirms the result before any implant is placed.