Bone Loss - Sarasota, FL
Preserving Your SmileStarts With Your Bone
The Foundation
Why Healthy Bone Matters
Your jawbone is literally the foundation of your smile. Your teeth are anchored in it and your gum tissue is wrapped tightly around it as a protective layer, so your esthetics and function depend heavily on a strong, healthy jaw. Lose jawbone mass and you may have problems eating and speaking normally, your face can take on a sunken, prematurely aged appearance, and you may lose teeth.
Many patients come to Speranza with severe bone loss wanting dental implants after being told they no longer qualify. The good news is that there are multiple solutions for severe bone loss — a condition best treated by a specialist with extensive training.
Causes
Severe Bone Loss Causes
Your tooth roots are firmly embedded in your jaws and help keep the bone healthy through the ongoing stimulation of chewing. Without those roots the jaw loses its function and begins to deteriorate where teeth are no longer present. Tooth loss from decay or oral trauma is a common reason. Dentures return most of your dental function but do not replace lost tooth roots, so they offer your jaw no protection. Advanced gum disease, or periodontitis, is another common cause — bacteria eat away at the jawbone underneath the gums.
Solutions
Severe Bone Loss Solutions
Bone grafting treatments make jawbone loss reversible. We take bone material samples from you or from a donor source and place them in areas of recession, where they bond with existing bone to reestablish strong, full volume. With ridge augmentation and ridge preservation we can rebuild and reshape your jawbone, returning it to an earlier, healthier state.
If your jawbone is not wide enough to support implants, ridge splitting can be effective. After separating the jaw's bony ridge, graft material is added in the middle; once fused, you have a wider, deeper ridge that holds dental implants securely. Implants then protect your jawbone from future recession and let you eat, speak, and smile comfortably again.
