Implant Surgery & Support
Bone grafting for dental implants
Jawbone deterioration from missing teeth can often be reversed — which is what turns most patients told they were not implant candidates into candidates.
Why bone loss happens
Teeth maintain bone by stimulating it. Every time you chew, force travels down the root into the jaw, and the bone responds by maintaining its density and volume.
When a tooth is lost that stimulus disappears, and the bone begins to resorb — your body reabsorbs it as unnecessary. Upper front bone resorbs faster than lower back bone, and wearing a conventional denture accelerates the process, because a denture rests on the gum without transmitting any force into the bone beneath it.
Grafting techniques we use
Allograft
Processed, sterilised donor bone from a tissue bank. The most commonly used option — it works as a scaffold your body gradually replaces, and it avoids a second surgical site.
Autograft
Bone harvested from elsewhere in your own jaw. Maximum biological efficacy, because it contains your own living cells, at the cost of a second site to heal.
Xenograft
Processed bovine bone, providing a stable scaffold with excellent volume maintenance. Particularly useful in sinus lifts and ridge augmentations.
Membrane Augmentation
Barrier membranes placed over graft material to keep soft tissue from growing into the space where bone needs to form.
Soft Tissue Grafting
Rebuilding gum tissue where recession has left inadequate coverage over the graft or implant site.
Sinus Lift
Creating bone height in the upper back jaw by elevating the sinus membrane and grafting beneath it.
Recovery and timeline
Surgery takes one to three hours depending on the extent of the graft. Integration then requires four to six months, during which your body gradually replaces the graft material with living bone.
The procedure is performed by Dr. Claudio Tocchio, oral and maxillofacial surgeon and former Chief of Dental Surgery at North York General Hospital.
What it costs
Grafting is usually an additional cost on top of the implant itself. Many dental plans cover it as a necessary prerequisite.
- ✓ Simple grafts — $1,500 to $3,000
- ✓ Complex cases — $3,500 to $5,500
- ✓ Sinus lifts — $2,500 to $4,000
Questions about your procedure?
Book a consultation and a 3D scan will show exactly what your jaw needs. Call (905) 479-7777.