What is bone grafting?
Bone grafting is a surgical procedure that adds bone material to a deficient site to restore volume — most often to prepare for a dental implant. The grafted material acts as a scaffold that the body gradually remodels into living bone over three to six months.
Why bone matters
Dental implants need bone to anchor in. The same is true for natural-feeling dentures and even fixed bridges. When you lose a tooth, the bone underneath starts to resorb within weeks — and within a year, you can lose 30–50% of the original ridge width.
A bone graft places replacement material into the deficient site, where your body remodels it into your own living bone over the following months. The result is a stable foundation for whatever restoration you choose.
Types of grafts we perform
Socket preservation: a small graft placed into the socket at the time of extraction. Five extra minutes; enormous downstream benefit.
Ridge augmentation: rebuilding bone width or height where a ridge has already collapsed, often before implant placement.
Block grafting: harvesting a small block of your own bone (typically from the jaw) to reconstruct larger defects. Reserved for cases where particulate grafting alone won’t suffice.
Sinus augmentation: a separate procedure for the upper back jaw — see our sinus augmentation page for details.
What graft material we use
For most cases we use processed allograft (human-derived) or xenograft (bovine-derived) particulate combined with a resorbable membrane. These materials have decades of evidence behind them and work as a scaffold that your body replaces with its own bone over 3–6 months. For larger reconstructions, we may use your own bone (autograft) for its faster integration.
Recovery
Most patients have minimal discomfort and return to work the next day. Some swelling for 2–3 days is normal. Soft diet for a week. No smoking — it dramatically reduces graft success.
We see you back at one week to check healing, and again at 3–4 months to plan the next step (usually implant placement).
Common questions
Is the bone from a person or animal?
Most grafts use processed allograft (human, from a tissue bank) or xenograft (bovine, processed to remove all cellular material). Both are sterilized and serve as a scaffold that your body replaces with your own living bone.
Will the graft be rejected?
These materials don’t contain living cells, so there’s nothing to reject. The body simply remodels them into your own bone over time.
How long does the graft take to heal?
3–6 months for most cases before implant placement. Larger reconstructions may take longer.