Sinus lift (sinus augmentation) procedure seeks to grow bone in the floor of the maxillary sinus and allows dental implants to be placed in the upper jaw. Sinus augmentation can raise the sinus floor which restores the maxilla (upper jaw) bone volume. The maxilla bone is more pneumatic and lighter then the mandible (lower jaw) due to the anatomical features of its structure. Sinus lift procedure is a surgery performed to increase bone in the posterior maxilla with the use of natural or synthetic osteoplastic materials as well as barrier membranes for guided bone regeneration. When and why are barrier membranes used?
The main stages of both open and closed sinus lift techniques involves opening a bone window to get access to the sinus cavity, filling it with bone material, using resorbable barrier membrane to protect the grafting material and closing the surgical hole.
The barrier membrane is used to separate the space inside the maxillary sinus. It dissolves in due time after performing the barrier and guide function when forming the new boundaries of the floor of the maxillary sinus.
In addition, the barrier membrane separates zone of bone remodeling from pneumatic maxillary sinus area, furthermore it is also a preventive measure of complications such as infection of the surgical site from the nasal cavity. The membrane should be placed in such a way to create the conditions for the best contact of bioplastic bone material with natural bone of the paranasal sinuses, that provides better bone formation due to a good blood supply and the exchange of material between the bone cells and added bone material. The more active is this interaction, the greater is the amount of bone.
Resorbable barrier membranes are made of collagen and therefore go into coarse fibers of fibrous connective tissue in the process of their physiological reconstruction. This connective tissue also becomes an additional barrier which reliably delimits the area of new bone from the nasal cavity. These procedures are necessary because the artificial bone material is microgranules mixed with natural bone chips to fill any available space.
The techniques of open and closed sinus lifts have been developed over the years and become more effective only due to the application of modern new osteoplastic materials, resorbable barrier membranes, which are made from the patient’s blood that is centrifuged, the development of piezosurgery and more advanced surgical instruments. This allows to perform the sinus lift procedure gently and effectively, creating conditions for the implant placement with a lifetime warranty.
The specialists of the company Bio3 Implants assert that modern dentistry ensures a painless and safe sinus lift procedure as a method to prevent bone atrophy.