Sinus Lift: Therapeutic Options to Restore the Posterior Maxilla

Abstract

The posterior maxilla is one of the most challenging areas when considering dental implants as the treatment of choice to restore an edentulous area. Sinus augmentation is a technique which aims to lift the maxillary sinus floor to help achieve ideal and optimal conditions for implant placement. Objective: The aim of this review is to compare the available techniques of sinus augmentation as well as their indications. It will also achieve an analysis of the effects on residual bone height with the use of different types of biomaterials used as well as identify common complications in sinus augmentation. Methodology: 23 articles were selected from PubMed, 1 article published on Madridge Journal of dentistry and dental oral surgery and 1 article published on Medknow. The articles were published from the year 2015 to the year 2020 with a total of 37 trials. Results: 97.3% of the trials were performed on humans while only 2.7% were on animals, with a most common age range between 26-73 years and an average of 27 patients in the trials. The most prevalent technique was the lateral window approach which was done on 618 individuals. 73.7% of the patients presented a residual bone height between 2-7mm and a total of 1187 implants were placed simultaneously, and 667 implants had delayed placement. Most common complication was membrane perforations present in 10 trials. Autogenous bone block showed an average of 12.55mm of residual bone gain and was considered the highest. Conclusion: The lateral window technique was done when the residual bone height is ≤. 4mm and the transcrestal approach when it was >5mm. Autografts showed highest increase in residual bone height but other materials and graftless techniques are comparable. The most prevalent complication was membrane perforations.