Bone grafts are procedures to rebuild jaw bone (aka alveolar bone) which has been lost due to infection, trauma, or lack of use. May be done around teeth with bone loss secondary to periodontal disease or in areas where teeth are missing in order to create enough bone to place dental implants. The bone material may be harvested from the same patient (autograft), donated from a different person (allograft), created from cow or pig derived tissue (xenograft) or be purely synthetic (xenoplast).