A sinus lift is a surgical procedure that is sometimes required prior to having implants fitted into your upper jaw. As you age, your sinus cavity increases in size causing bone loss to occur. This can also occur due to other factors such as after an accident, if you have gum disease, after a difficult extraction or after having a cyst or tumour removed. While it may sound quite frightening, sinus lifts Marylebone are quite a common procedure carried out at David Madruga by our dentist.

Sinus lift before implants

Sinus lifts Marylebone are often needed if you have an insufficient amount of bone to fuse to your dental implant. It involves carrying out a bone graft between your upper jaw and the membrane of the sinuses that are closest to your molars which are located at the back of your mouth. The sinus lift naturally fuses to your jawbone thereby allowing an implant to be fitted in.

Why may a sinus lift be necessary?

Implants are titanium screw-like posts that are surgically fixed into your jawbone in order to act like an anchor for dentures or crowns. As they are surgically fused into your jawbone, there needs to be a sufficient amount of bone surrounding the implant in order for it to heal properly. As you grow older, your sinus cavity increases in size and at the same time bone loss occurs, which makes fitting an implant difficult as there isn’t enough bone to fuse to the implant. In order for an implant to be fitted in, our dentist may suggest carrying out sinus lifts Marylebone so that new bone material can be placed into the space between your jaw and sinus membrane.

How are sinus lifts performed?

The process of a sinus lift begins with our dentist carrying out a clinical assessment of your mouth to check if you require implants and if you are suitable for them depending on your medical history. They will also carry out a 3D scan of your mouth to assess the condition of your jaw and whether you have a sufficient amount of jawbone for the fusion to take place when an implant is fitted.

Where and under what conditions your sinus lift is performed is dependent on the complexity of your procedure. If your case is not as complex, it may be carried out under a local anaesthetic at our local dental practice. However, if it is more complex, in which case surgery is required in order to take bone from your hip, then you will undergo the procedure under general anaesthetic at a hospital.

During the procedure, our dentist cuts into your gum to make an opening in your jawbone in order to reveal the sinus membrane. New bone material is then placed into the area between your jaw and sinus membrane and the gum tissue is closed with stitches. Sometimes, a collagen membrane may also be placed on top of the bone in order to keep it in a fixed position, but this may not be the case for everyone.

Aftercare

After the surgery you may experience some bleeding, inflammation or pain; if this occurs you may take over-the-counter painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs to manage the symptoms. Our dentist may also prescribe you some antibiotics in order to prevent infection from occurring at the surgery site.