Traditionally, dental bone graft substitutes have been used when bone resorption has greatly reduced the jawbone and the defect area needs to be built up or filled in for a dental implant to be placed. Common causes of this scenario are periodontal disease, trauma, infections, and developmental defects.  Dental bone graft substitutes continue to serve this purpose, but they are now increasingly being used to enhance the final aesthetic result of a dental implant placement.

In the U.S. and Europe, patients are increasingly seeking to achieve more natural looking results with dental implants. More patients are requesting restorations that closely resemble original teeth in terms of appearance. Many of these patients want superior aesthetics rather than just functional replacement for missing or extracted teeth.

Because of this demand for attractive results, bone graft material will continue to be used more often during dental implant placement to target bone growth. It will enable the dental implant fixture to be placed in a more ideal position and thereby improve the overall appearance of the final restoration.

Although autogenous bone continues to be the gold standard in bone grafting, the treatment requires two separate and inconvenient procedures. This includes extracting the bone from a donor site within the patient’s body and then a second procedure to place the harvested bone in the defect area.

Consequently, a growing volume of patients is looking at bone graft substitutes to improve the aesthetic result of the dental implant procedure. With an increasing volume of clinical data showing the effectiveness and safety of dental bone graft substitutes, both patients and dental physicians will gain confidence in these products.

Proprietary and nonproprietary allografts, xenografts, and synthetic bone graft substitutes originate from outside the patient’s body. Consequently, these materials are not linked with the same discomfort and inconvenience associated with the use of autogenous bone.

Despite questions about disease transmission and potential rejection of the bone graft substitute by the patient’s body, the growing amount of supporting documentation and global adoption of dental bone graft substitutes will continue to promote their incorporation in dental implant procedures. With patients demanding more comfortable and convenient procedures, physicians will prefer to use dental bone graft substitutes in order to enhance the final aesthetic result of the patient’s dental implant restorations.

According to Millennium Research Group’s US Markets for Dental Biomaterials 2009 and European Markets for Dental Biomaterials 2009 reports, the adoption of dental bone graft substitutes in dental implant procedures will continue to increase in both regions through 2013.

Because of the global recession that intensified in the latter part of 2008, the growing use of dental bone graft substitutes in dental implant placements has slowed compared to previous years. As disposable incomes dwindle or are reprioritized, many potential patients have either postponed or cancelled dental implant restorations, resulting in curbed use of dental bone graft substitutes.

The number of dental implant placements will, however, start to experience higher growth as the economy recovers.  During this time, patients will remain aesthetically driven, leading to greater adoption of dental bone graft substitutes.

As global financial conditions stabilize and consumer spending picks up, more physicians will use dental bone graft substitutes in dental implant placements to help produce the optimal aesthetic result that patients demand without the discomfort and inconvenience associated with autogenous bone.

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