Bone grafting

Bone grafting is a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone with material from the patient's own body, an artificial, synthetic, or natural substitute. Bone grafting is used to repair bone fractures that are extremely complex, pose a significant risk to the patient, or fail to heal properly.

The most common use of bone grafting is in the use of dental implants to replace a missing tooth. Dental implants require bones underneath them for support and to have the implant integrate properly into the mouth. People who have been edentulous (without teeth) for a prolonged period may not have enough bone in the right places. In this case, bone can be taken from the chin or from the pilot holes for the implants or even from the iliac crest of the pelvis and inserted into the mouth underneath the new implant.

In general, bone grafts are either used en block (such as from the chin or the ascending ramus area of the lower jaw) or particulated, in order to be able to adapt it better to a defect.

Another common bone graft, which is more substantial than those used for dental implants, is of the fibular shaft. After the segment of the fibular shaft has been removed normal activities such as running and jumping are permitted on the leg with the bone deficit. The grafted, vascularized fibulas have been used to restore skeletal integrity to long bones of limbs in which congenital bone defects exist and to replace segments of bone after trauma or malignant tumor invasion. The periosteum and nutrient artery are generally removed with the piece of bone so that the graft will remain alive and grow when transplanted into the new host site. Once the transplanted bone is secured into its new location it generally restores blood supply to the bone in which it has been attached.

Tissue source

Autologous bone is typically harvested from intra-oral sources as the chin or extra-oral sources as the iliac crest of the pelvis.

Allograft bone from cadavers or live donors may also be used. Allograft is typically sourced from a bone bank.

Xenograft bone substitute has its origin from a species other than human, such as bovine. Xenografts are usually only distributed as a calcified matrix.

Alloplastic grafts may be made from hydroxylapatite, a naturally occurring mineral that is also the main mineral component of bone. They may be made from bioactive glass.Hydroxylapetite is a Synthetic Bone Graft, which is the most used now among other synthetic due to its osteoconduction , hareness and acceptability by bone there are also calcium carbonate which start to decrease in usage because it is completely resorbable in short time which make the bone easy to break again finally used is the tricalcium phosphate which now used in combination with hydroxylapatite thus give both effect osteoconduction and resorbsbility.

Growth Factor enhanced grafts are produced using recombinant DNA technology. They consist of either Human Growth Factors or Morphogens (Bone Morphogenic Proteins in conjunction with a carrier medium, such as collagen).

ee also

*Bone healing
*Periodontics
*Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
*Orthopedic surgery