Sinus Lift

This operation is used for the upper back jaw when there is too little residual bone below the maxillary sinus to support an implant of the planned length.

The operation involves lifting the sinus membrane with an osteotome or blunt instrument. The membrane can be perforated during sinus-floor elevation, alongside the usual surgical discomfort.

A systematic review focuses on complications of sinus-floor elevation, including membrane perforation and problems that require management. These are surgical risks of working beneath the sinus floor.

The lifted compartment can form new bone around the tip of an implant. Its long-term role is to provide support for that implant, rather than to replace the tooth on its own.

A series of osteotomes, sometimes with burs, prepares the implant bed one to two millimetres short of the sinus floor. Light tapping raises that floor and the membrane, then the implant is placed in the remaining bone.

Recovery follows surgery in the sinus area and requires attention to complications of sinus-floor elevation. The grafted compartment is allowed to heal while new bone forms around the implant tip.

Short implants of six millimetres or less are an alternative considered against longer implants placed with sinus-floor elevation in an atrophic posterior upper jaw.

An implant may be installed at the same time as the osteotome lift. The implant tip sits in the lifted area, where new bone can form around it after surgery.

Payment questions should separate the implant from the sinus-floor elevation, because the lift adds a surgical procedure beneath the maxillary sinus to the tooth-replacement plan.