Sinus lift

For dental implants to be successfully placed in the posterior maxilla, there needs to good volume of the jaw.

There is a sinus above the back teeth. When teeth are lost in this area, the sinus expands and the jaw ridge loses height. This can result in a ridge that is too short to place an implant.

A well established procedure to increase height of the posterior upper jaw ridge is called a sinus lift. It is a type of bone graft whereby the sinus floor is raised, and bone is grafted underneath it and allowed to heal. This increases ridge height, allowing for adequate height for implant placement. Evidence-based literature shows that dental implant survival rates in grafted sinuses is very high.

Many times, the implant can be placed at the same time as the sinus lift to decrease numbers of surgeries as well as reducing overall healing time. After an appropriate healing time, a crown is able to be placed on the implant. 

There are different clinical scenarios when a sinus lift could be performed. Probably the most common example is as described above is when an implant is to be placed in the posterior upper jaw ridge that already has deficient vertical height of bone.

Another time to consider a sinus lift is at the time of extraction of a posterior upper (maxillary) tooth (usually a molar) when it has been predetermined that there is already inadequate height for an implant.