Bone Material

A More Natural Alternative For Dental Bone Grafting

• What you already know – The different types of dental bone material
• Natural vs. synthetic bone material – What’s the difference?
• Introducing Meisinger’s AlgOss, a more natural alternative for dental bone grafting

What You Already Know – The Different Types Of Dental Bone Material…

As you know, the dental bone grafting process is a complex one, with different considerations required depending on the patient and their requirements. Different materials deal with different issues, such as low bone tissue (volume), which can cause bone fragility and low bone strength, or low bone mass or even low bone density, which measures the bone mineral content and mineral distribution within that volume. With bone grafts being vital for issues such as bone loss, correcting bone structure, bone surface defects, bone fragility, low bone strength or bone resistance, gum disease, tooth loss, and the need for bone substitution, understanding the different materials available is vital. Here are the main types:

• Xenografts: Also known as bovine bone grafts, these are made from animal bone.
• Alloplasts: These substitutes are made from synthetic composites and materials.
• Allografts: These are sources from a human bone donor.
• Autografts: Autografts are comprised of the patient’s own bone.

All of these have a variety of material properties and mineral component composition that play an important role in the bone remodelling, and bone formation process, as well as socket preservation and guided bone regeneration.

Natural vs. Synthetic Bone Material – What’s The Difference?

Now, there is no hierarchical organisation of which bone material is better, but there is a clear segregation between natural sources, such as xenografts, allografts, and autografts, and synthetic composites and materials, including alloplasts. Neither type can promise ultimate strength and miraculous bone formation, but both types do have their benefits, including:

• Synthetic composites, such as hydroxyapatite crystals (a substance found naturally in teeth anyway), polymers, and tricalcium phosphate, are osteoconductive, meaning they have mechanical properties that provide a bone matrix that promotes but doesn’t directly stimulate bone formation.
• However, synthetic composites do have weaker mechanical properties, are slower to integrate, and sometimes lack proper bone resorption.
• Natural bone materials, on the other hand, are better at promoting bone formation, and enable faster integration as they contain living bone cells.
• However, they are more expensive and have limited availability, as well as the chance of disease transmission (in the case of allografts) and the requirement for a second surgical site (autografts).

Introducing Meisinger’s AlgOss, A More Natural Alternative For Dental Bone Grafting…

Meisinger’s available range of AlgOss bone grafting materials is a natural, plant-based, bioactive, resorbable material that promotes bone formation. They are produced sustainably, from regrowing marine algae and have excellent absorption properties. Their purpose is to restore lost bone naturally, helping promote the deposition of new bone and bone tissue ingrowth. This is aided by their interconnected, unique honeycomb structure, which helps to prevent defect filling and instead promotes defect bone regeneration. Here’s a brief look at the range…

AlgOss 100 Bone Grafting Material: This bone graft material is ideal for low bone volume or where bone volume constancy is important over a longer period. Bone graft processes involving this product assure longer volume stability and high analogy to the human bone.

AlgOss 20-80 Bone Grafting Material: Dental professionals utilise this in scenarios where there are defects with an extensive contact surface to the local bone. This is because it contains high tricalcium phosphate (TCP), also known as calcium phosphate, which defines it as a biphasic product. This enables faster and more effective bone regeneration and regrowth.

For more information about our available bone grafting material or any of the dental products and dental equipment we stock and distribute, please click here to contact us. One of our team members will be happy to help. For sales enquiries, please call J&S Davis on 01438 747344.