Today, bioengineering has led to simple but effective surgical techniques that can either totally prevent or greatly reduce the bone and soft tissue loss that normally occurs following tooth extraction. This will introduce you to a simple yet effective procedure that will help prevent such tissue loss from occurring following tooth extraction.

What generally occurs to the surrounding bone and gum tissue following tooth extraction?
Tooth extraction is one of the most common dental procedures. Healing of the resulting extraction socket normally occurs uneventfully. However, even with completely normal healing, there is often some resorption or melting away of the surrounding bone, resulting in less height and width than were present prior to tooth extraction. In addition, as bone resorbs, the overlying gum tissue also tends to lose both volume and its normal anatomic form. These changes can occur anywhere but the most severe loss of bone and gum tissue tends to occur following removal of incisor teeth located in the front of the mouth.

Why is preserving bone and surrounding gum tissue important?
Loss of bone and gum tissue following tooth extraction often results in both functional and cosmetic defects. Such tissue loss often results in an unsightly collapsed appearance, especially in the front of the mouth where proper maintenance of tissue health is critical to normal esthetics. In addition, loss of bone and gum tissue often compromise the dentist’s ability to adequately replace the missing tooth or teeth with either conventional removable or fixed bridgework or with a dental implant supported restoration. Sometimes the loss of bone is so severe that additional surgical procedures are required prior to replacing the missing tooth with either a conventional or implant supported restoration.