The jaw bones hold the teeth in place. If a tooth is missing either due to periodontal (gum) disease or caries (decay), the jaw bone will begin to recede. Why is that a problem? You need the jaw bone intact to replace the missing tooth or teeth with a dental implant, a denture, or a partial.
Bone grafting is the common procedure that reconstructs the bone so that you can fill the extracted socket from the missing tooth in order to maintain the width and the height of the alveolar ridge. The alveolar ridge is also known as the gum ridge and is one of the two jaw ridges either on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate or on the bottom of the mouth behind the lower teeth.
