Socket Preservation and Bone Grafting in Durham, NC

One practice. One treatment plan. One team.

One of our goals is to make socket preservation more affordable for our patients. Socket preservation is needed to preserve bone volume when a tooth is extracted. If a patient wants an implant, one requirement of the patient’s anatomy is to have enough bone at the edentulous site to be able to place the dental implant in an ideal restorable position. In order to give the patient the best opportunity for a successful outcome we commonly recommend bone grafting, also known as socket preservation at the time the tooth is extracted. A bone graft is not always indicated, but will be recommended if we feel your oral health would benefit. Graft materials can vary quite a bit, some are synthetic, others come from animals such as pigs or cows, and many are processed from human cadavers. We do our best to help you make an educated decision about what graft material will work best for your oral healthcare needs. The patient’s blood products are commonly processed and mixed with the graft material to create what is known as “Sticky Bone”. We find sticky bone is more forgiving and typically more successful when used on difficult areas to graft or when used on patient’s with delayed or difficult healing. Dr. Britt is an active member of the International Team for Implantology (ITI), and advanced grafting techniques around implants or to prepare a site for a future implant is a couple of the many areas we focus on.

FAQs

Socket Preservation is when bone grafting material is placed into the extraction socket where the tooth was extracted from. This procedure is commonly preformed with Allograft (human cadaver bone) that has been processed to cleanse it of any possible impurities from the donor.
We commonly place resorbable membranes over our bone grafts to aid in healing and assure graft stability as well as avoid invasion of soft tissue into the graft.
Sticky bone is made by preforming a blood draw and processing the blood to obtain PRF membranes as well as C-PRF (Liquid). The graft is then mixed with small pieces of the PRF membranes and hydrated with C-PRF prior to placement. This gives the handling of a bone putty but is superior in its healing properties. This option gives the patient the highest chance of success.
The type of bone graft material used will be determined by the provider. Sometimes Xenograft (bovine) is used to maintain space. Many times Allograft (human) is recommended. Synthetic materials are sometimes used due to patient allergies (Ex g. Alpha Gal Syndrome).
Sometimes the patient is unsure about their future desires of an implant. Sometimes allowing the site to heal and remodel without socket preservation will make a (FPD) bridge more likely to pack food. Sometimes bone loss has already occurred around adjacent teeth and this is our opportunity to stabilize the adjacent teeth. Not all extractions require socket preservation, the recommendation will be made by your provider if we feel it is in the best interest for optimal oral health.

General dentists who are well trained in extractions and bone grafting are ideal providers for this treatment option.
This also allows patients to have the entire treatment plan completed in one location by a single provider.
Many times our extraction/ socket preservation patients have minimal post operative pain that is effectively treated by Tylenol and Ibuprofen only.
If advanced bone grafting procedures were indicated there is an increased risk of post operative pain.
We discuss Exparel if we feel this is a concern.
Usually minimal conscious sedation or nitrous oxide is enough to get through this procedure. However, we do offer IV sedation for this procedure.