Bone Grafting in Chicago, IL

The graft itself is placed under local anesthesia, so the procedure is not painful. You may notice some pressure while the area is being worked on, but the tooth and surrounding tissue stay fully numb the entire time. If sitting in the chair makes you anxious, sedation can be added to keep you relaxed.

Recovery tends to be milder than most patients expect. Some swelling and tenderness around the site over the first few days is normal and usually eases with over-the-counter pain relievers. Dr. Raffi sends you home with detailed post-operative instructions so you know exactly how to care for the bone graft while it heals.

Healing time depends on how much bone is being rebuilt and where it sits in the jaw. A simple socket preservation graft placed after an extraction often integrates in about three to four months. Larger ridge augmentation or block grafts can take closer to six to nine months before the new bone is dense enough to anchor a dental implant.

Throughout that window, the graft material is slowly replaced by your own living bone, a process that cannot be rushed. Dr. Raffi checks your progress with imaging and lets you know when the site is ready for the next stage of treatment.

Sometimes, yes. When a tooth has just been removed and the surrounding bone is still largely intact, the graft and the implant can occasionally be placed together in one visit. This shortens the overall timeline and reduces the number of surgical appointments.

More significant bone loss usually calls for a staged approach, where the graft goes in first and is given months to mature before the implant is placed. Dr. Raffi reviews your imaging and explains which path fits your situation before any treatment begins.

Bone grafting can draw on several proven materials, and the right choice depends on how much bone needs rebuilding and where. The most common options include:

• Autograft: your own bone, harvested from another site, considered the gold standard for integration
• Allograft: processed and sterilized human bone from a certified tissue bank
• Xenograft: processed animal bone that acts as a scaffold for your own bone to grow into
• Alloplast: a synthetic mineral substitute engineered to mimic natural bone

Every one of these materials is safe and well studied. Dr. Raffi walks you through the choices and recommends the material best suited to your bone graft.

Bone that has started to shrink does not recover on its own. Left alone, the jaw keeps losing height and width, the teeth around the gap can drift or loosen, and the area becomes harder to restore as time passes. What might have been a simple graft can turn into a more involved reconstruction later.

Placing a dental implant also becomes more difficult, and in some cases impossible, once too much bone is gone. Treating the loss early with a bone graft usually means simpler, less costly care and keeps more of your restorative options open.

The cost of a bone graft depends on how much bone is being rebuilt and which technique is used. A small socket graft is far less involved than rebuilding an entire ridge, and that difference is reflected in the price.

At our Chicago and Bourbonnais, IL offices, we go over the full estimate with you during your consultation so there are no surprises, and we offer flexible financing options to help make treatment manageable.

No. Healthy adults of essentially any age can be good candidates for bone grafting. What matters far more than a number is your overall health and how well your body heals, both of which Dr. Raffi reviews before recommending treatment.

During your evaluation, your medical history, current medications, and the condition of your jawbone are all taken into account so the plan is safe and appropriate for you.