According to studies, an alarming percentage of patients will refuse what is otherwise a routine grafting procedure because they categorically reject cadaver bone graft materials. And if the patient leaves, they’re not just taking your graft sale elsewhere–they’re leaving with the extraction, graft, implant, abutment, and crown.
If that kind of revenue walked out of your office any other way, you would probably do something about it.
You might be missing out on 70% of your bone graft business
For this reason alone you should be offering an alternative bone graft to your patient and keep them in your practice.
This is a follow up to previous article titled, “The More Bone Grafts You Place, The More Implants You Place.” In that, we discussed a 2015 study that looked at how patient perspectives of bone grafts influence acceptance rates. When offered an allograft, 41% of patients declared that they “would never accept this type of bone graft or would do so only as a last resort.” When offered a xenograft, 33% of patients would reject it outright or settle as a last resort. In the same study, the rejection rate for synthetic grafts was only 2%.
There is yet another study that brings to focus patient perception and concerns. This study, published in January 2019, involved surveying patients from five university clinics in Portugal, France, Italy, Spain and Chile to analyze patient opinion regarding the source of bone grafts. Once again, the grafts that elicited the highest percentage of refusal were allografts (40%) and xenografts (33%). In this study, the refusal rate for synthetics was only 6%.
Click on the link below to see the new publication:
The importance of understanding the biomaterials available today will allow for more profitable solutions to grafting therapy. This information is not intended to tell you not to use cadaver bone grafts, it is intended for you to know that many of your patients simply will not return if they are not given an option.
If you are a general practitioner and you inform your community that you use an FDA cleared, science based, synthetic bone graft material as an alternative to cadaver bone grafts, you will attract a significant amount of patients.
If you are a specialist, inform you referral base that you offer an alternative FDA cleared, science based, synthetic bone graft material and also include this option on your referral pad and you will significantly increase your referral base.
Your patient-doctor relationship will benefit in the long term as you take into consideration personal beliefs and concerns when recommending treatment.
We would love to entertain your thoughts on this topic and discuss your own experiences with patient acceptance/refusal. The better informed we are as a dental community, the better we can serve our patients. Please send us an email!
MEMBER:
American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR)
Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS)
American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID)