Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Extractions and Bone Grafting

Dry socket happens when the blood clot in the socket is dislodged, exposing bone and nerves. For the first 24 to 48 hours, avoid straws, smoking, carbonated drinks, and vigorous rinsing or spitting. Eat soft foods and chew on the other side. After 24 hours, rinse gently with warm salt water. If intense, throbbing pain starts two to four days later, call us right away.

Both rebuild bone so it can support an implant; the difference is location. A standard bone graft adds bone where the jaw has lost density, usually the lower jaw or front of the upper jaw. A sinus lift is used in the upper back jaw, where the sinus sits just above the roots. It gently raises the sinus membrane and places graft material beneath it.

Common reasons include decay too extensive to restore with a filling or crown, a fracture extending below the gumline, advanced gum disease that has loosened a tooth beyond saving, severe crowding requiring room for orthodontic treatment, or an impacted wisdom tooth that can't fully erupt. Extraction is generally recommended only after restorative options are ruled out.

A bone graft is a procedure that adds bone or a bone-substitute material to an area of the jaw lacking sufficient volume or density to support a dental implant or maintain the jaw's shape. The graft material acts as a scaffold that your body gradually fills in with its own new bone over several months.

Socket preservation is a bone graft placed directly into the empty socket at the time of extraction, before it can begin to collapse and resorb. It maintains the width and height of the jawbone at that site, keeping future tooth-replacement options - particularly a dental implant - simpler down the road.

Without adequate bone, an implant placed into a deficient site carries meaningfully higher risk of failing to properly fuse or failing later under normal chewing force. In some cases, a shorter or angled implant can work around modest bone loss without a full graft - your 3D scan will show whether that's realistic for your anatomy.