A bone graft was placed under your gums to increase the size of your ridge for future implant placement or pontic site development.

 

Unfortunately the surgery you just went through is quite painful. The amount of pain you feel will depend on the size of the bone graft that was placed. Larger bone grafts are usually more painful than smaller ones. Pain is usually worst in the first 3 days and should improve by 10 to 14 days. If the pain increases significantly a few days (3 to 7 days) after the bone graft, please call for instructions.

 

You are probably going to experience some degree of swelling after surgery. The amount of swelling you have will depend on the size of the bone graft placed. The swelling is usually greatest in the first 5 days and should start to decrease by 7 to 10 days. If the swelling increases significantly a few days (3 to 7 days) after the bone graft, please call for instructions.

 

You will probably have a little bit of bleeding and a pink color to your saliva for the first day or two after surgery. Holding small amounts of ice water in your mouth will usually stop any slight oozing. However, if there is excessive bleeding the day of or continual bleeding the day after the day of surgery, please call for instructions.

 

Bruising is also quite common after guided bone regeneration is performed. The bruising is likely going to occur under your eye, in your cheek and/or under your chin. This is more common when larger bone grafts were placed. The bruising will usually show up 1-2 days after surgery and may last up to 10 to 14 days.

 

You will probably have a little bit of bleeding and a pink color to your saliva for the first day or two after surgery. Holding small amounts of ice water in your mouth will usually stop any slight oozing. However, if there is excessive bleeding the day of or continual bleeding the day after surgery, please call for instructions.

 

The sutures need to stay in place at least 10 days but may be left in place up to 1 month. We do this in order to keep the membrane and bone graft from coming out from under the gums.

 

The time it takes for the bone graft “to take” is depends on the size of the graft. Smaller grafts heal faster than larger ones. Grafts usually take anywhere between 4 and 6 months to heal. If implants were not placed at the same time as the guided bone regeneration surgery, we will need to take a new 3 dimensional x-ray of the surgical site 4 to 6 months after the surgery in order to assess the amount of bone now available for implant placement.