Can I Get Dental Implants Using Bone Grafting?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question 

I have a cracked tooth that is painful and needs to be extracted and replaced by a dental implant. The gap will need a bone graft done, which, as I understand, is a bone powder extracted from human bones that come from a bone and tissue bank. The bone graft melts away over time, allowing your own bone to grow in place. 

Is this allowed in Islam? Is it permissible to have bone grafting done for a dental emergency?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Yes. It is permissible to have such a procedure done if there is a pressing necessity in doing so. This relates to the legal maxim: necessity permits certain impermissible matters. [Ibn Nujaym, al-Ashbah wa al-Nazair]

Thus, if you will be in clear harm/difficulty without this procedure and there is no alternative solution, the above maxim will apply.

Bone Grafting

The bones used for bone grafting are either taken from the patient themselves: bone from one part is taken and used as a graft for another part; or from a cadaver.

If the bone samples are collected in the former method, the procedure is definitely permissible. If by the latter, it will be permitted due to the above maxim. However, note that if one can choose between the former and the latter, one must choose the former.

Hope this helps

Allah knows best

[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.