Preparing for Dental Implants: Socket Preservation

Ideally, treatment for dental trauma should seek to preserve as many of your natural teeth as possible. When this is not an option, proactive dental restoration often involves treating the supporting jaw bone to ensure successful care. Socket preservation is an effective method of reinforcing weakened bone and creating a stable foundation for your future restoration.

What is Socket Preservation?

Socket preservation is designed to encourage the body to naturally repair sockets left by missing teeth. When implemented immediately following tooth extraction, socket preservation efforts can reduce bone atrophy in the jaw. Unlike ridge modification, where the graft is placed on bone, socket preservation places grafts directly inside the tooth socket.

The Socket Preservation Procedure

Following tooth extraction, bone, or a bone substitute, is placed inside the empty tooth socket. The socket is then covered with a gum graft or an artificial membrane that encourages the body to heal the socket itself. While socket preservation is not a permanent solution, it does prevent gum tissue and bone from growing in the empty socket and causing bone shrinkage in the jaw.

How Does Socket Preservation Help Me?

Scientific evidence has shown that, within the first year following tooth loss or extraction, anywhere from 40 – 60% of the socket is reabsorbed by the jaw. This can have a domino effect on other oral structures by causing the jaw bone to shrink, compromising dental function and putting other teeth at risk of becoming loose. Bone atrophy can also make the process of placing dental implants more difficult by requiring preparation surgeries to ensure the jaw is healthy enough to support the implants. 

Socket preservation provides patients with a comprehensive treatment that protects the shape of their smile. By preserving the socket, patients have a greater chance of successful dental implant placement, leading to a long-lasting restoration and improved dental function.

Socket Preservation in Northern Virginia

For more information on preparing for dental implants with socket preservation, contact Dr. Snehal Patel at Lorton-Springfield Dental Implants and Oral Surgery. With offices in Lorton as well as Springfield, our dental team strives to help patients achieve healthy, beautiful smiles through long-lasting restoration solutions.