Bone Grafting & Regeneration

Grafting is site preparation, and its scope varies enormously. The simplest version — socket preservation — takes a few extra minutes at the end of an extraction: graft material is placed into the empty socket, covered with a membrane or PRF, and sutured, which prevents the collapse that otherwise follows tooth loss.

Larger reconstructions are their own appointment. Ridge augmentation rebuilds width or height where bone has already been lost, guided bone regeneration uses a membrane to hold the graft space open while bone forms, and a sinus lift raises the sinus floor to create vertical room for upper-jaw implants. Each is planned from a CBCT scan that measures precisely what is missing, so the volume of graft material and the membrane design are decided before surgery.

Most grafting is done under local anesthesia with sedation available, and the appointment typically runs 45 to 90 minutes depending on the site. PRF from your own blood is frequently mixed into the graft or layered over it to support healing.

The first week is about protecting the graft. Swelling peaks at day two or three, a soft diet is used, and pressure on the site is avoided — no chewing over it, no probing with the tongue, and for sinus lifts, no nose blowing, straws or air travel for a defined period. Most patients need one to three days away from work.

Soft tissue closes over one to two weeks. What takes longer is the graft turning into your own bone: roughly four to six months for socket preservation and smaller sites, and six to nine months for sinus lifts and larger ridge reconstructions before an implant can be placed with confidence.

Follow-up imaging at the end of that period confirms the volume and density achieved, which is what determines the implant plan. Smoking is the single biggest threat to graft success and is worth stopping before, not after.

The purpose of measuring bone in three dimensions is often to graft less, not more. A CBCT scan regularly shows that an implant can be angled into existing bone — or placed slightly differently — and avoid a graft that a flat X-ray appeared to require.

Where grafting is genuinely needed, the scan defines exactly which dimension is deficient, so the procedure is targeted rather than generic. PRF, produced chairside from a small blood draw, adds growth factors to the site with no donor material and no additional biologic risk.