Idiot's Guide please - how can jaw bone cells make new bone?!
Question: A dental surgeon can take bone and treat it so that just the hydroxyapatite is left. To build up jawbone foundation beneath an implant, they cut the jaw and put in this hydroxyapatite. When the person's bone cells come into contact with the hydroxyapatite they calcify it and make new bone.
How do the jaw bone cells make new bone?
How do the cells know to make new bone?
Are the new bone cells the same as the existing bone cells or are they different?
Any easy to understand websites/references would be great too, thanks.
Answers: A dental surgeon can take bone and treat it so that just the hydroxyapatite is left. To build up jawbone foundation beneath an implant, they cut the jaw and put in this hydroxyapatite. When the person's bone cells come into contact with the hydroxyapatite they calcify it and make new bone.
How do the jaw bone cells make new bone?
How do the cells know to make new bone?
Are the new bone cells the same as the existing bone cells or are they different?
Any easy to understand websites/references would be great too, thanks.
The cells that make new bone are called osteoblasts. Dentists and doctors have been using other substrates to be a matrix for new formation. (like coral and freeze-dried cadaver bone). The osteoblasts are in the periosteum ( the membrane covering the bone) and in the marrow. They only do bone (there are other cells to eat bone away, to make and break down cartilage, etc)