Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Extractions

This month I would like to talk about extractions. Don’t turn away. In the past, teeth were removed without regard for the negative impact to the remaining bone structure. Extractions can cause the soft tissues and bone to collapse. Teeth are in sockets which are surrounded and supported by the bone. The dental procedure done to prevent this is called socket preservation. It involves placing a regenerative bone grafting material into the empty tooth socket at the time of extraction. This is done to rebuild the bone where the extraction left an empty weakened area. There are a number of different materials which can be used. There are autogenous bone grafts where the tissue used is from the patient’s own body. There are also allografts where the tissue is used from another human donor. Then there are xenografts and alloplasts. Xenografts are natural tissue from another species while an alloplast is a synthetic bone material. Why is this necessary? It is important in preserving the natural appearance of the front of the mouth. It is also very important in providing appropriate support for dentures or a dental bridge construction. It is also essential in providing sufficient bone to support dental implants.