The bone graft has to heal for a minimum of four months to be strong enough to support a dental implant.
Ideally, the extraction happens and we do the bone graft and membrane in the same appointment. Then, the patient needs to heal for four months. Next, we place the implant – which is just the titanium screw – and that needs to heal for a minimum of four months. Then, we uncover the implant and let it heal for about a month. While that’s healing, our lab spends about a month perfecting the crown. Now, if it’s a front tooth there could be multiple visits for fittings to get the tooth color matched and blended in perfectly.