For dental implant, artificial or cadaver bone graft?

August 29, 2023 9:22 PM

I need an implant, and it requires bone graft before the implant is installed. I can choose between artificial or cadaver bone material. Insurance will only pay for artificial; but then it costs me $0. For cadaver, I pay $500.

Please help me decide this, you are not my maxillofacial surgeon, etc.

I specifically asked the surgeon which he recommends; he said cadaver, that in his experience it seems to be superior. I didn't have the nerve to ask him if this was a strictly clinical answer, or if he makes more money if he uses the one insurance doesn't pay for.

This is in the US; does anyone have any insights?

posted by honey badger to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

Best answer: There are different types of grafts that are done prior to dental implants. Ridge augmentation is one type, a socket graft is another. Autografts (using your own bone) are best for ridge augmentation , whereas allografts ( cadaver) and alloplastic (synthetic) grafts are more practical for socket grafting.
I don't place implants, but i do place the crowns on them. I do place grafts when I extract teeth if there's the possibility of an implant down the line. I've used both kinds and I've had surgeons (who place implants for me) that prefer one over the other and surgeons that don't care.
Following the science as I've read, I now use resorbable synthetic grafts that induce the body to produce its own bone on the matrix of the graft material. I follow the healing closely and the surgeon places an implant only when dense bone has formed where the implant will be placed.
When I am controlling the treatment, I am conservative about loading an implant only when the surgeon and I are certain there's great integration into solid, natural bone. This approach has worked over the years with several kinds of grafts because we evaluate the implant site for what we need prior to restoring and only proceed when we're sure the outcome will be what we are going for.
In short, the outcome rarely depends on the type of graft if all of the steps are carefully done and your bone heals well without resorbing.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:12 PM on August 29, 2023 [34 favorites]

An insight: If you donate blood products there may be different deferral rules based on the graft material.
posted by achrise at 6:58 AM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've had three teeth pulled, over the years (entirely in the US).

#30 and #3 naturally healed (no grafts performed; none suggested at the time), and #14 where I accepted an allograft (as creepy as it seemed to me, at the time).

Received one implant (entirely successful, two-years-in) in #3.

I am contemplating implants in #30, and #14.

I am also contemplating the replacement of three of my upper-front (#8, #9, #10) due to bone-loss, and "gereralised tectonic plate shifting" (a territorial dispute that kinda mirrors what Indian Plate has been doing to the the Eurasian Plate over the past ~30M years, but on a much smaller scale (both in effects, mass, and time (no K2 or Mt. Everest here, thankfully *smile*))).

Counsel is to use allographs after the extractions of 8/9/10 (prior to eventual implants).

I may have to sell my house--and my children off for Medical Experiments--to keep these ideas afloat, however *grumble*
posted by splifingate at 10:49 AM on September 4, 2023