Bone Grafting

Bone Grafting

Bone grafting is the use of artificial or natural bone products to fill defects around an implant at the time of surgical placement.  We generally use an ultra-purified animal-derived product which originates from bovine (cow) bone.  It has been used across the world for over 20 years, on more than 10 million patients and is considered completely safe.  It acts as a temporary scaffold allowing your own bone to repair and regenerate itself.  The bone graft material is covered by another animal-derived product which is porcine (pig) collagen and this protects the bone graft for the first few weeks while it is healing and then it completely dissolves. It is essential for successful regeneration of the missing bone.  There are alternatives if you choose not to have animal products, but the scientific literature strongly supports this group of materials as the “gold standard”.

Bone grafting is also used if there is a lack of adequate bone, preventing implant placement.  We often use an additional procedure to prepare a natural material called “L-PRF” (Leukocyte- and Platelet-Rich Fibrin) which contains stem cells, growth factors and other cells and proteins to “supercharge” the healing process for the larger grafts.  However, this does require us to take a small sample of blood at the start of appointment.  This is a “staged” treatment and will require a healing period of several months prior to the implants being placed. Blackhills Clinic was one of the first in the UK to use this technique and our surgeons are involved with teaching it in this country and overseas.