Bone
Grafting

Bone Grafting in White Plains & Waldorf, MD

Jawbone is living tissue, and it only keeps its volume while it is being used. The roots of your teeth stimulate the bone around them every time you chew; once a tooth is gone, that stimulus disappears and the bone in that area begins to resorb. The change is fastest in the first several months after an extraction and continues slowly for years afterwards. Gum disease, an old injury, a long-worn denture or a failed root canal can all thin the ridge in the same way. Bone grafting reverses that loss by placing graft material into the deficient site, where it acts as a scaffold that your own body gradually replaces with new, natural bone.

At Charles County Surgical Arts in White Plains, MD, Dr. Ryan Look and Dr. John McElveen perform socket preservation, ridge augmentation and sinus lift procedures for patients across Charles County — including Waldorf, La Plata and Brandywine — as well as neighboring St. Mary's and Calvert counties. Both are board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeons, so grafting is planned as part of the whole restorative picture rather than in isolation. In most cases the goal is a stable site for dental implants, and knowing exactly where the final implant needs to sit is what determines how much bone is built and where it is placed.

When Is a Bone Graft Needed?

Not every extraction site or implant case requires grafting. A graft is generally recommended when one or more of the following applies:

• Insufficient bone for an implant: Imaging shows the ridge is too narrow or too short to hold an implant in the correct position with adequate bone around it.
• At the time of extraction: A socket preservation graft placed immediately after a tooth is removed helps maintain the width and height of the ridge for a planned implant.
• Long-standing tooth loss: Gaps left untreated for years, or areas worn under a partial denture, often lose enough bone that the ridge has to be rebuilt before restoration.
• Periodontal bone loss: Advanced gum disease destroys the bone supporting the teeth, leaving defects that need to be filled once the infection is under control.
• Sinus encroachment in the upper jaw: The sinus floor frequently drops closer to the ridge after upper back teeth are lost, leaving too little vertical bone for an implant without a sinus lift.
• Trauma or a bone defect: A facial injury, cyst removal or congenital defect can leave a contour that needs to be restored before further treatment.

Are You a Candidate for Bone Grafting?

Candidacy starts with a CBCT scan, which lets us measure the height and width of bone actually available and see the position of the sinus and the nerve canal. From there we consider the wider picture. Active gum disease or untreated infection is addressed first, because a graft placed into an inflamed site is far less predictable. Smoking and vaping meaningfully impair healing and are worth stopping well before surgery. Uncontrolled diabetes, some autoimmune conditions, previous radiation to the jaws and certain bone-density medications such as bisphosphonates or denosumab all affect the way bone heals, so bring a full medication list to your consultation. Most healthy adults are suitable candidates, and where grafting is not the right choice we will tell you so and discuss the alternatives — including shorter or angled implants, an implant at a different site, or a bridge.