CLINICAL FEATURE
collects, processes, and preserves the tooth in a refrigerator or freezer for future use. The tooth is processed to remove any remaining caries, calculus and gutta percha (if any) and is then stored in 75% ethyl alcohol, either in a refrigerator or freezer. This process ensures the tooth remains viable for future use. The stored tooth can later be used to produce bone graft material, for dental implants or grafting of bone defects in case of periodontal conditions, especially when patients suffer from bone loss in the jaw. When a patient requires a bone graft for dental procedures, the preserved tooth is then retrieved, processed into bone graft material, and used in the procedure. This processing procedure can be done with a chair side machine such as BonMaker by Korea Dental Solutions, which takes only approximately 20mins to process a tooth into a powdered bone graft, or 35mins to an auto-tooth block graft material. Alternatively, it can also be sent to a processing centre to be processed into bone blocks.
handling of different patients’ teeth is important in the banking system. Additional equipment like refrigerator and alcohol for long-term storage of the tooth are readily and commercially available. Key benefits of setting up a tooth bank in dental clinic 1. Enhanced biocompatibility: By using the patient’s own extracted teeth for bone grafting, the resulting material is highly compatible with their biological tissue, reducing the risk of rejection and improving healing outcomes.
2. Personalised treatment: A
tooth bank allows for a more personalised approach to dental care. Patients can utilise their own biological material for future procedures, leading to better integration and long-term success of dental implants. 3. Cost savings: Using the patient’s own teeth as graft material may be more cost-effective over time
compared to synthetic graft materials or xenograft, and it removes the limitation of harvesting for autogenic bone graft.
To operate a tooth bank proper documentation, labelling, storage and
A display of some readily available equipment required for a tooth bank such as an auto-tooth bone graft material processor, accessories, and chemical reagents (Image: GobizKorea)
33 DENTAL ASIA SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2024
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