Bone grafts are necessary for some patients who are seeking dental implants to replace teeth that have been missing for many years. The jawbone recedes from the gums naturally when a tooth is gone for many years, and this can make embedding the implant correctly in the jawbone difficult. UK implant dentists usually use the patient’s own bone tissue to create a graft, but this is not always possible.
Alloplastic bone grafts are made using a man made material that acts like natural bone, and encourages the body to replace the graft with it’s own bone tissue. These grafts are usually made from a material such as calcium phosphate that the body can easily breakdown when it’s ready to replace the graft with bone. The risk of rejection is generally low because the material is generic enough not to trigger the body.
These man made grafting materials do take longer to heal than other types of bone grafts. Often dental implants can be installed as soon as the bone graft bonds to the existing jawbone. Alloplastic grafts must be fully absorbed and replaced by natural bone before an implant can be added. Despite this, alloplastic bone grafts are often the only choice for some patients.