Victoria dental bone graft, adding bone for a post
A dental bone graft places material at the site and covers it, and your own bone grows through it over the following months. It is a separate stage with its own healing, which is why some implant plans run nine months rather than four.
Dental bone graft material is not what ends up holding the implant. It acts as a framework that your own bone cells grow into and gradually replace. That is why the waiting matters and why a bone graft cannot be rushed; the scaffold has to be converted into living bone before a post can be anchored in it.
Which material and how much depends on the shape of the defect. A shallow socket after an extraction is a different job from a ridge that has lost width over a decade, which is what Ridge Augmentation addresses, or an upper back site under a low sinus, handled by Sinus Lift Surgery.
Best of all is not needing it. Grafting the socket at the moment a tooth comes out, covered on Socket Preservation, limits the shrinkage before it starts.
Grafting stage
How it works
A dental bone graft, placed and matured in four stages
Measure the defect
The scan gives height and width in millimetres. That measurement decides whether grafting is needed at all.
Place and cover
Material is placed and protected with a membrane under local anaesthetic. Most cases are a single appointment.
Let it convert
Four to nine months while your own bone grows through the scaffold. Smoking slows this considerably.
Rescan, then place
A second scan confirms the bone is really there. If it has not matured we wait rather than place into a graft that is not ready.
Avoiding it
Sometimes a shorter post beats a dental bone graft
Where a site is only slightly short of bone, a shorter or narrower implant, or an angled placement, can avoid grafting altogether. Fewer stages is always better when the result holds, so where that is possible we will offer it rather than adding a procedure. The angled approach is exactly what All-on-4 Implants uses at scale.
We will also say when grafting genuinely cannot be avoided. Padding a plan with an unnecessary graft would be easy and invisible; you would never know. What protects you is that the measurement is on the scan and we show you the same images, as described on CBCT Imaging and priced on Dental Implant Cost.
4 to 9 monthsMaturing
RescanChecked by
SometimesAvoidable
Related treatments
The specific kinds of bone graft we place in Victoria
Different sites lose bone in different ways and need different repairs.
Materials, discomfort, healing time and what happens if it does not take.
Usually processed bone mineral from a donor source or a synthetic equivalent, sometimes mixed with a small amount of your own bone. All of it works as a scaffold rather than staying as foreign material. We tell you which is being used for your case and why it suits that defect.
The procedure is done under local anaesthetic so it should not hurt at the time. Afterwards expect swelling and soreness for several days, generally more than a simple extraction and less than most people brace for. Over the counter pain relief handles it for the majority.
Four to nine months, depending on how much was added and where. A small socket graft may be ready in four; a large ridge or sinus case often needs closer to nine. We rescan and place when the bone is ready rather than working to a date fixed in advance.
Yes, though it is uncommon. Infection, smoking and the membrane becoming exposed are the usual causes. If it does not mature we assess why before deciding whether to repeat it or change the plan. You would be told, rather than the implant simply being placed anyway.
No. Plenty of sites take a post exactly as they are, particularly where the tooth came out recently. The scan is what answers it, and we would rather tell you no grafting is needed than add a stage that is not.
Victoria patients
What Victoria grafting patients say
★★★★★4.9· 118 reviews on Google
★★★★★
Tooth missing since my twenties so the ridge was thin. They showed the scan and explained why width mattered.
G. Mackenzie
Ridge graft, Victoria
★★★★★
Swelling for about four days then fine. They rescanned before placing rather than just booking me in.
V. Rossi
Graft then implant, Langford
★★★★★
Went in expecting a graft. The scan showed there was enough bone and it came off the plan. Saved months and a lot of money.
D. Achterberg
Told no graft needed, Colwood
★★★★★
Grafted at the same time as the extraction. Barely noticed it as a separate procedure.
F. Nakamura
Small socket graft, Saanich
From the blog
Victoria implant guides: grafting, healing time and cost
Find out whether your site needs a bone graft in Victoria
The only way to know is to measure it. A consultation and CBCT scan give the height and width in millimetres, and you see the same images. If the site takes a post as it stands, we will tell you that.
