Garak Market Station Dental Clinic - 3 Must-Follow Tips After Implant Bone Grafting

Hello. I am Shin Seung-hwan, the chief director of Yonsei Uline Dental Clinic, Garak Market Station Branch, near Exit 4 of Garak Market Station in Garak-dong, Songpa-gu.

Today, I will talk about how to care for yourself at home after receiving an implant and bone graft surgery when there is not enough bone.

When there is a significant lack of bone at the site where a tooth was extracted, it is common to perform bone grafting together with implant placement before inserting the implant.

In these cases, the part that worries patients the most is, “If inflammation develops, do I have to have surgery again?”

To begin with, initial care after bone grafting is extremely important.

If inflammation does not occur early on and the bone settles stably, the grafted bone can integrate well and the implant can also remain stable.

On the other hand, if inflammation occurs during this process, there are cases where bone grafting must be performed again after the inflammation subsides, or a second surgery may be needed.

So why does bone grafting sometimes fail?

Many people think the bone is placed in a large solid piece and fixed firmly, but in reality, most alveolar bone grafts performed in dentistry use powdered bone.

This bone powder is filled into the deficient area to guide the growth of new bone.

To put it simply, you can think of it as similar to filling with cement.

However, while cement hardens in a day or two, bone does not harden that quickly.

It takes several months for new bone to form.

And during this time, the most important thing is to minimize movement.

If the surgical area keeps moving in the early stage,

the grafted bone may not settle stably,

may scatter, or inflammation may occur, and in the end it may fail to grow into bone.

That is why dental clinics advise you to eat porridge or other soft foods after surgery.

Some patients think,

“Isn’t it enough if I just don’t chew on the surgical side?”

However, because the jaw is connected on both sides as one structure, even if you chew only on one side, the surgical area is not completely immobile.

If it moves repeatedly, it can ultimately interfere with the bone settling properly.

Therefore, in the early stage after bone grafting, it is important to avoid hard or chewy foods and eat mainly soft foods to minimize movement in the surgical area.

There is one more thing you must observe.

That is to avoid drinking alcohol and smoking.

Alcohol and tobacco slow down wound healing and increase the likelihood of inflammation, so they can have a very negative effect on the bone-setting process.

Therefore, during the recovery period after bone grafting, it is best to refrain from drinking and smoking if possible.

To summarize, the key points of home care after bone grafting are three things.

Eat mainly soft foods in the early stage,

minimize movement in the surgical area,

and avoid alcohol and smoking.

If you follow just these three things well, it will greatly help the grafted bone settle stably.

This has been Yonsei Uline Dental Clinic near Garak Market Station in Garak-dong, Songpa-gu.