Losing teeth stinks–for a lot of reasons. You lose the ability to chew with confidence. You might have some compromises when you smile. And going through the process of surgery to remove hopeless teeth is not fun either. But if it happens to you, just know you have me around to employ some modern procedures to get you back to where you want to be chewing and smiling.
When you lose teeth, you immediately lose the surrounding bone that supported them. And that bone continues to atrophy over time if there are no teeth in place. The supporting bone is often a crucial foundation for any tooth replacement you can have.
I use bone grafting procedures to regenerate and preserve that foundation bone you need. The materials I use can vary from human derived bone approved by a bone bank, to cow- or pig-sourced bone, or even inorganic, non-animal materials. The one material that I tend to love the most is your own – called an autograft.
In the past 20 years that I have been performing bone grafting, I haven’t seen better results than an autograft. The techniques that I use to create an autograft come from you own blood. That technique is called advanced platelet-rich fibrin (A-PRF).
A-PRF starts with a process that isolates growth cells and platelets from your own blood. From there, I can begin to build plugs, scaffolds, and walls of bone that your body regenerates.
In addition to using your own tissues, there are other benefits to using A-PRF. It accelerates the healing and tissue growth, and creates high-quality tissue. Bony healing is particularly effective with A-PRF, and is recommended when you are planning for tooth replacement with dental implants. A-PRF has a wide array of applications–bone, gum tissue, sinus, even skin defect repairs.
Lyons Creek Dental Care is proud to have doctors Chris Rafoth and Bob Feasel on staff. Lyons Creek has been providing oral surgery and tooth replacement care for over 40 years. Call us today at 206.362.5400 to have a consultation to see if bone grafting or A-PRF is the right choice for you!
