Dental bone grafting takes about 45 minutes. It’s done in your dentist's or oral surgeon's office.
At a prior consultation, your oral surgeon will have discussed the procedure, examined your mouth, taken X-rays, and determined whether you can be awake with local anesthesia or if you’ll need to be sedated. If you’re having more than two or three teeth extracted prior to the graft, you may be more comfortable with IV sedation, he says. “The decision typically comes down to the patient’s anxiety level, the number of teeth you’re having extracted before the graft, and the extent of the procedure,” says Dr. Jamali.
On the day of your procedure, you’ll be given anesthesia. Once it takes effect, your surgeon will extract any teeth that need to be removed. They will then make an incision in the gum to reach the bone and clean out any infected tissue.
If the graft will be done using your own bone, your surgeon will need to make a second incision in another part of your jaw or body (commonly the hip) to harvest the healthy bone.
Then they’ll transplant the bone material into the area of loss. They’ll top it with a collagen membrane, to prevent the gum from growing into the bone, before suturing the gum closed.
After you recover from the sedation, you’ll be sent home with instructions for care. You’ll be groggy, so make sure you have someone there to take you.
