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Family and Friends

Thank you for visiting our website and seeking critical information about a bone graft procedure your doctor has recommended. The better informed you are, the better you can understand the importance of making the right choices, especially when it comes to your health and wholeness.

Your dentist may be advising you that a bone graft must be placed to maintain the shape of your jaw and keep your bone healthy. It is very important to follow the instructions your dentist gives you after you have received treatment. It is just as important to ask the questions you need of your health care professional before accepting bone graft treatment.

Ultimately, we all want the same thing:

For you to grow back your own healthy, vital bone.

If You Choose Not to Have a Graft

When a tooth is removed, bone in the socket is exposed to the oral environment and is filled with bacteria. To prevent the bone from being infected, our bodies produce an inflammatory response.

The extraction socket begins to fill with a gelatinous fibrin clot that is packed with inflammatory cells sent to the area by your body to fight infection. If infection is warded off, your gums will slowly grow over the fibrin clot and the clot is converted into a very dense fibrous tissue. This fibrous tissue is very slowly replaced with bone over a period of months.

However, because the bone is left exposed to heal on its own without the aid of a bone graft, the body reacts with an intense inflammatory reaction, resulting in a significant amount of bone loss during the healing process.

Due to the bone loss in the extracted area, the socket wall that once held the tooth in place collapses, resulting in poorly fitting appliances and often an insufficient amount of bone needed to for a dental implant.

This is what is expected in the normal healing of an extraction socket that is not grafted.

Healing complications can also occur when an extracted site is left to heal on its own. A common complication is a dry socket. Dry socket occurs when the fibrin clot fails to stay in the socket during the healing and the socket becomes infected. This is a very painful condition requiring considerable time and treatment to resolve. It is also very important to understand the type of bone graft that your doctor is recommending and why choosing a science-based, biocompatible bone graft will play a crucial role in the long-term success of your implants.

Our Graft.

Your Bone.

SteinerBio bone graft products are designed to regenerate healthy vital bone that is capable of supporting a dental implant for a lifetime.

Our bone graft products contain an organic compound that enters your bone-producing cells (osteoblasts) to make them productive. This compound is essential in the role of bone formation and without it, natural bone will not form.

The compound already exists in the body, but because our bodies lack adequate amounts of it to regenerate enough new bone, your dentist would have to to place our bone graft in the affected area. Since the bone that will form is new, it will be stronger, healthier, and more vital.

SteinerBio bone graft products do not contain human or animal products and have been cleared by the FDA for implant placement, unlike human cadaver bone grafts (allograft). Also, unlike allografts, our synthetic bone graft products safely regenerate your own bone tissue without causing allergic reactions, inflammatory reactions, or bone graft rejection.

Our grafts have been categorized by the FDA as both a medical device and a drug. In fact, our bone grafts are the only grafts on the market that the FDA allows to claim that the grafts stimulate osteogenesis, or  true bone regeneration.

Additionally, our grafts are the only grafts expressly cleared by the FDA for implant placement.

Activating the Osteoblasts

When our bone graft is placed into your socket, the material works as a matrix for your osteoblasts to migrate onto. As the osteoblast cells encounter our organic compound, they begin to absorb it through their cell membrane. After processing the compound, the osteoblasts secrete an unmineralized organic matrix called osteoid, which is based on your own genetic information. When the osteoid begins to mineralize, it encases the osteoblasts within the matrix, which mature into permanent new bone cells!

FAQ

While your dentist may have a preference to a certain material, your opinion as a consenting patient should also be a consideration. In many cases, the source of a dental bone graft material may be considered undesirable or even offensive to a patient due to ethical, cultural, or religious concerns. Bone graft material may come from one of four sources:

Autograft: Your Own Bone

Patients wanting to use their own bone material incur some degree of increased risk simply because there are two surgical sites involved. A surgeon harvests your bone material from your hip bone, shin bone, portions of your jaw, or some other area. By using your own bone material, you reduce the risk of your body rejecting the bone graft. However, a second surgery is necessary, increasing the chance for infection/morbidity, pain, or visible scarring (depending on the donor site).

Allograft: Human Cadaver Bone

This material is procured from a donor bank. The risk of infectious disease transmission is the same as if you received blood from a blood bank. Because cadaver bone grafts are considered “transplant tissues”, they are not evaluated for safety and effectiveness by the FDA. As mentioned earlier, no long-term studies have been published on the success rates of implants placed into a socket where a cadaver bone graft was used. In clinical studies, allograft particles have not been found to resorb in the body. When the allograft mineralizes, it produces what is called sclerotic bone, or abnormally hardened bone. The sclerotic bone does not integrate to the surface of implant. The bone graft site does not remodel and never becomes normal bone.

In a study that surveyed 100 people who were asked about accepting or refusing certain types of graft material, allografts elicited the highest rate of refusal with 41% rejecting it under any circumstance or accepting it only as a last resort when no other option is presented. A common reason for refusal was religious objection.

Xenograft: Animal Bone

Xenograft are bone grafts taken from a species other than human, such as cows or pigs, and are more easily sourced than Allografts. While this material is sterilized, there is always the risk of transmitting disease or cross-contamination with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) or porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs). There is no way to adequately screen xenografts for those viruses to determine their presence.

Common reasons for refusal of xenografts include ethical implications or religious concerns. Xenografts do not stimulate your body’s cells to form bone and portions of the graft material may remain in your body, never to resorb.

Alloplast: Synthetic Bone Material

These grafts are made of minerals that naturally exist in human bone. Patients typically prefer this type of bone graft because synthetics do not represent any ethical problem, elicit no religious objections, or imply the use of animals. The safety of not posing any risk in terms of disease transmission or involving a second complicated surgery is also highly valued.

SteinerBio dental bone grafts are synthetic grafts that have been cleared by the FDA and do not contain human or animal products. There is no risk of transmitted diseases with our material. Our synthetic grafts are fully resorbed and completely replaced by your own healthy, normal bone.

Generally, candidates for dental bone graft procedures include people who have periodontal disease or loss of density and bone matter of the jawbone. Trauma to the mouth, gums, or teeth is yet another factor that contributes to the need for a dental bone graft. Dental bone loss may occur in cancer survivors due to the effects of chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment. However, the largest group of candidates for dental bone grafts are people who have lost one or more teeth.

Bone density is essential to the normal functions performed by your jawbone. Bone density may be significantly affected by the loss of a tooth. Some patients no longer have the jawbone structure necessary to support an implant. When the jawbone dimensions and bone density are inadequate, a dental bone graft may be used to ensure a successful implant.

Modern dental implants have been in use since the 1970s. They were typically used in those who had lost multiple teeth and who had great difficulty stabilizing or tolerating dentures. Bone grafts were not typically associated with dentistry as they were mostly performed elsewhere in the body by an orthopedic surgeon in a hospital setting. Over time, traditionalism has led to cadaver bone to be the accepted standard for dental bone grafting. Unfortunately, no long-term studies have been published on the success rates of implants placed into a socket where a cadaver bone graft was used.

Ideally, your dentist may use a dental bone graft in conjunction with the initial tooth extraction. Doing so ensures proper alignment for your teeth. Additionally, the dental bone graft can help to retain your jawbone’s existing dimensions.

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