Bone Graft for Dental Implants: When You Need One and What It Costs
A bone graft rebuilds the ridge where an implant has to go when there is not enough bone left to hold one. It costs 200–400 euro per site here. The reason this page exists is timing rather than surgery: a graft found on the CBCT before you travel is one extra line in your plan, while a graft discovered on the day is a changed treatment, a changed price and sometimes a wasted trip. Every implant case is scanned and read before a date is agreed.
- What it does
- Rebuilds width or height of the jaw ridge so an implant has bone to hold
- Decided by
- The CBCT, read before your trip is booked
- Two timings
- At the same appointment as the implant, or 4 to 6 months before it
- Time in the chair
- 20 to 40 minutes added to the implant surgery for a small graft
- Anaesthesia
- Local anaesthesia
- Healing
- 4 to 6 months when the graft is done on its own
- Price
- 200–400 euro per site
Send your panoramic X-ray now and we will tell you whether a CBCT is likely to show a bone deficit before you spend anything on flights.
Why the bone went missing
Bone around a tooth exists because the tooth uses it. Take the tooth away and the ridge starts to narrow within months, fastest in the first year. That is the single most common reason for grafting: a gap that has been empty for a decade has often lost a third of its width.
The other reasons are mechanical or anatomical. A tooth removed by force, or one that fractured and took a wall of the socket with it, leaves a defect from the start. Long-standing infection around a root dissolves bone before the tooth is even out. Full dentures worn for years press on the ridge and flatten it. In the upper back jaw, the sinus sits above the ridge and the available height can be only a few millimetres: that is a different procedure, described on sinus lift.
Grafted with the implant, or months before it
** Where the defect is small, the implant goes in and graft material is packed around it under a membrane in the same appointment. There is no extra trip and no extra healing period, because the graft matures while the implant integrates. Most of our grafting is this kind.
** Where the ridge is too narrow to hold an implant at all, the graft is done alone and left to mature for 4 to 6 months. Only then is the implant placed. This is the case that adds a whole visit, and it is the one patients need to know about in advance, which is why we do not quote an implant for a jaw we have not scanned.
Which of the two applies is a measurement, not an opinion. The scan gives ridge width in millimetres at the planned site; below a threshold the implant cannot be stabilised, and your plan says so in that language. Related conditions that change implant planning are covered on am I a candidate for dental implants.
What goes into the site
Graft material is a scaffold. It does not become your bone; your own bone grows through it and replaces it over months, which is why the waiting time is not negotiable. Options in normal use are your own bone collected during the surgery, processed bovine or equine granules, and synthetic mineral granules, usually held in place by a resorbable collagen membrane.
| Line | Price in euro |
|---|---|
| Bone graft, per site | 200–400 |
| Implant, clinic’s standard system | 300–450 |
| Implant with zirconia crown | 450–650 |
| Consultation and CBCT review | Free |
Ask for both versions of the plan priced, one with grafting at the same visit and one with grafting first, so a scan result cannot surprise your budget. Send images on WhatsApp at +355 69 691 1118 if that is easier than e-mail.
Your visit
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before travel | CBCT reviewed, ridge measured, the graft appears as a priced line or does not |
| Day of surgery | Graft placed, with or without the implant, membrane secured, stitches |
| Days 2–3 | Swelling check, soft diet, you fly home with written aftercare |
| 4–6 months | Graft matures; implant placed on the next visit if it was not placed already |
FAQ
Does a bone graft hurt more than an implant?
The graft itself adds little. What adds discomfort is the size of the area opened and the stitches, so a wide graft swells more than a single implant site and for a day or two longer. It is done under local anaesthesia, you feel pressure during it, and the aftercare is cold compresses, the medication listed in your plan, and a soft diet for about a week.
Can I fly home the day after a graft?
We prefer you stay two or three days so the site can be checked once the initial swelling has settled. Flying itself is not the problem for a ridge graft. The reason to stay is that a loose stitch or a displaced membrane is trivial to correct in the chair and awkward to fix from another country.
What if the graft does not take?
It is uncommon and it is not a disaster. The site is cleaned, allowed to settle and grafted again, or the plan moves to a site where bone is adequate and a different design is used. This is the reason grafting is quoted separately from the implant rather than buried in a package price: you can see exactly what was paid for and what is being repeated.
Do I need a graft if I lost the tooth last month?
Often not, and that is the argument for acting early. A socket grafted at the time of extraction keeps its shape, so the implant placed a few months later goes into a ridge that is still the right width. If a tooth is coming out on your first trip, ask for socket preservation in the same plan: the detail sits with the implant process on dental implants.
Use the quote form and attach the clearest X-ray you have. The dentist who will treat you reads it, states whether grafting is likely and what it would add, and you receive the written plan with the exact price within 24 hours.
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