Sinus Lift Surgery

Below you can see images of Maxillary Sinus Lift Surgery carried out at our practice. Sinus Lift surgery becomes necessary when insufficient bone is available in the upper jaw back region for Implant placement. The Sinus lift surgery allows new bone formation in the sinus floor without damaging the sinus lining. The new bone formed can then support dental implant placement.

Please note the photos below contain images of blood and surgery, so please change the page if you dont wish to see such images.

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Case 1 (Sinus Lift Surgery)
	This patient presented to us having lost all of his teeth through gum disease and decay. He decided to have full mouth rehab with twelve upper and lower implants followed by fixed bridges on top of the implants.
	In the upper back region, due to the proximity of the maxillary sinus and the resorption of the bone back there, it would be impossible to place implants without first doing a sinus lift.
	So we first raised a gum flap roughly outlining the access to the maxillary sinus.
	The bone beneath the gum flap is then exposed and a window is cut in the bone leading to the sinus floor.
	The maxillary sinus is now exposed and the so the sinus lining becomes visible. As you can see we lifted back the sinus lining gently without perforating it and separating it carefully from the sinus floor. (Hence the name Sinus Lift Surgery)
	We placed a Porcine derived Bio-Gide membrane between the sinus lining and the floor of the sinus. The Bio-Gide membrane isolates the region that we wish to bone graft and keeps the sinus lining back.
	We then placed Bovine derived Bio-Oss bone grafting granules into the sinus floor to build up the bone for the future implant placement. The Bio-Oss promotes the patients body to lay down more of his own bone into the sinus floor.
	We then stretched the Bio-Gide membrane over the Bio-Oss bone granules and so this action separates the gum flap from the Bone granules below. The Bio-Gide membrane will resorb in a few weeks but in the mean time allows the bone granules below to solidify and take a solid shape.
	The surgical flap is then closed and sutured back together with resorbable sutures.
	The closed surgical site is left to heal for around 6 months to allow the patients own bone to replace the Bio-Oss granules. The patient can then have a dental implant placed in that region, into freshly laid down bone.
10 days later ...
	You can now see the surgical site after ten days. The surgical site on the left of the picture has healed very well. The patient had no pain or symptoms.
	Compare the bone on the two sides of the jaw. You can see that the bone on the left surgical site has already increased substantially in width compared with the right side of the picture. case to be continued...

Case 2 (Sinus Lift Surgery)
	This patient did not have enough bone in the upper posterior region and so for implants to be placed, he needed a sinus lift. Here you can see the maxillary sinus wall is removed and the sinus lining exposed.
	To protect the sinus lining, a Bio-Gide resorbable membrane is placed between the sinus lining and the area to be bone grafted.
	Bio-Oss bovine derived bone replacement material is placed between the sinus wall and the Bio-Gide membrane.
	The Bio-Oss is mixed with some of patients own bone scraps.
	The surgical site is sutured back together with resorbable sutures. The bone graft will be left as it is for 6-9 months and in this period, the patients body will replace it with patients own bone. After 6-9 months implants can be placed in this region.
10 days later ...
	The sinus lift surgical site has healed very well. The remaining sutures will resorb over the next few days.