A bone graft rebuilds the jawbone where bone has been lost, so a dental implant has something solid to sit in. A sinus lift does the same job higher up, in the upper back jaw. Dentique Dental Care offers both at its Downers Grove and Lemont offices in Illinois.
Sedation options are available, nitrous oxide and oral conscious sedation, and your price is confirmed in writing at the consultation before you agree to anything.
Many people arrive here having been handed the word graft and very little else, and having stayed away from a dentist for years before that. Neither is something you will be judged for here.
A sinus lift is one particular kind of bone graft, done in the upper back jaw, and it makes room for bone under the sinus so a dental implant can be placed where the bone is thin. Raising the sinus floor is what creates that room. A bone graft is the wider procedure: bone material added anywhere in the jaw that has lost enough bone to matter.
The difference between them is location and reason, not technique.
| Bone graft | Sinus lift | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Bone material added to the jaw to replace bone that has been lost. | A graft placed in the upper back jaw, with the sinus floor raised to make room for it. |
| Where in the mouth | Anywhere in the upper or lower jaw where bone volume is short. | Above the upper back teeth, beneath the sinus. |
| Why it is done | To give a dental implant enough bone to hold, or to stop a thin ridge narrowing further. | The bone between the upper back teeth and the sinus is often too thin to hold an implant. |
| When it is done | At the time of an extraction, or months and years later, once bone loss has been measured. | Before an implant in the upper back jaw, or sometimes at the same appointment. |
A bone graft is needed when there is not enough bone to hold a dental implant securely, and that is a question of measurement rather than opinion. A CT scan or X-ray shows how much jawbone is there, and the number either clears the height and width an implant needs, or it does not.
The jawbone around an empty socket shrinks once the tooth it supported is gone.
Gum disease destroys bone around the teeth it affects, and it does not grow back on its own.
Bone under the sinus is often thin to begin with, which is where a sinus lift comes in.
A scan decides this, not an opinion. Some people are told they need a graft when a simpler plan will do, and sometimes the right answer is to wait.
Whether a graft is worth it comes down to a trade. It adds time and cost to an implant plan, and that is the honest downside. A graft also stops an implant being placed in bone that cannot hold it. Both of those are true at once, and the scan is what decides which one matters in your case.
Nobody here is going to push you into surgery you do not need; patients tell us, unprompted, that they were not upsold.
Bone grafts are placed by general dentists, periodontists and oral surgeons, depending on the training the individual clinician has and on what the case involves. So the useful question is not whether a regular dentist or a specialist should do it. The useful question is what implant training your dentist has, and how complex your case is.
At Dentique Dental Care, the dentist is Dr. Xhelo Shuaipaj, DDS, FDOCS, FICOI, who has been in practice for over 30 years. Bone graft and sinus lift are both confirmed services at the practice, and there is one dentist across both offices, so the same clinician handles the consultation and the implant.
A local anaesthetic goes in first, and sedation is available if you want it.
A bone graft is done under local anaesthetic, so the procedure itself is not painful. The soreness afterwards is what most people mean when they ask whether it will hurt, and it is usually manageable with the aftercare you are given. Sedation is available if you are anxious about it.
How painful the following days feel varies with how much grafting was done and where. Some swelling and tenderness are normal. Nobody here is going to tell you that you will feel nothing, because that would not be true and you would find out.
Breathed through a small mask, and it wears off before you leave.
A pill to relax you before the appointment.
The wait differs by graft type, and a socket preservation is not the same as a sinus lift.
Swelling that eases day by day, tenderness at the site, and a need to leave the area alone: no hard rinsing, no spitting, no smoking. Disturbing the graft material early is the main avoidable risk, along with infection.
If something is worrying you, call the office that carried out the procedure and say what has changed. Dentique Dental Care would rather hear from you early than late.
Swelling that eases day by day, tenderness at the site, and a need to leave the area alone: no hard rinsing, no spitting, no smoking. Disturbing the graft material early is the main avoidable risk, along with infection.
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If something is worrying you, call the office that carried out the procedure and say what has changed. Dentique Dental Care would rather hear from you early than late.
Dental insurance covers a bone graft when the graft is judged medically necessary rather than preparatory, and that judgment is why the answer depends on your specific plan. Plans differ, and it is worth checking before you commit.
Whether a graft is covered usually turns on how the claim is coded, and on what the plan says about bone grafting as a step toward an implant rather than as treatment in its own right. Your annual maximum matters too, because a graft and an implant falling in the same plan year can use it up between them.
Delta Dental, MetLife, Cigna, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare, Guardian, Humana.
CareCredit, Cherry and Sunbit are available.
It anchors to the teeth on either side of the gap, so nothing goes into the jawbone.
Removable, and no surgery involved.
Whether one exists for you depends on the individual case, and the scan is what shows it.
A dental bridge replaces a missing tooth by anchoring to the teeth on either side, so nothing goes into the jawbone and no graft is required. A partial denture is removable and involves no surgery at all. Both are options Dentique Dental Care provides, along with crowns and bridges, dentures and partials, and full-arch implants including All-on-4.
Not every option suits every mouth, and the honest comparison happens at the consultation rather than on a page.
Dentique Dental Care has one dentist, Dr. Xhelo Shuaipaj, who has practiced for over 30 years and sees patients at both the Downers Grove and Lemont offices, so the person who plans your graft is the person who places your implant. That continuity shows up in how long people stay. Patient tenures of 15, 20 and 25 years are on the books.
Two things patients say without being asked. The first is that they were treated judgment-free after years away from a dentist. The second is that the treatment planning came with no pressure and no upsell. Sedation is offered on the same terms, as a way through the appointment rather than as an extra to sell.
A dental bone graft is replaced over time by your own bone, which is what makes it durable: once the graft material has been remodeled into jawbone, it is jawbone. How long it holds up afterwards depends on the same things any jawbone depends on, including whether an implant is placed into the site to keep the bone loaded and working.
After a dental bone graft, leave the site alone: no poking with your tongue or fingers, no vigorous rinsing or spitting in the first days, no smoking, and nothing that pulls at the stitches. The aftercare instructions you are given at the appointment are the ones that apply to your case. Disturbing the graft material early is the main avoidable risk.
The downside of a bone graft is that it adds time and cost to an implant plan, and that it is minor surgery, with the soreness and the healing period any surgery brings. It also means the implant is placed months later than it otherwise would be. Those are real costs, and they are weighed against placing an implant in bone that cannot hold it.
A sinus lift is a bone graft in one specific place: the upper back jaw, where the sinus floor is raised to make room for the graft. A bone graft anywhere else in the jaw follows the same principle without the sinus involved. Which one you need depends on where the missing tooth sits.
You can have a bone graft years after a tooth extraction. The jawbone narrows and loses height in the years after a tooth is lost, so a graft done later usually has more rebuilding to do than one placed at the time of the extraction, and a scan is what shows how much. Coming in after a long gap is common here, and it is not something you will be told off about.
Dr. Xhelo Shuaipaj, DDS, FDOCS, FICOI, has been in practice for over 30 years and sees patients at both Dentique offices, in Downers Grove and Lemont, and he reviewed this page for clinical accuracy. He is the only dentist at the practice.
FDOCS stands for Fellow, DOCS Education, a sedation credential. FICOI stands for Fellow, International Congress of Oral Implantologists, an implant credential.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Xhelo Shuaipaj DDS FDOCS FICOI
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