Why Do I Need a Sinus Lift Procedure Before Getting Implants?

Dental implants are a favorable solution that replaces missing teeth. They’re often chosen over alternative teeth replacement solutions such as dentures because implants are similar to natural teeth, allowing you to maintain optimal chewing and speech function. 

Implants are gaining popularity, so you may already be familiar with the process. However, you may not know about its sometimes necessary counterpart: sinus lifts. You may need a sinus lift to secure dental implants properly.

At Beaches Dentistry in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, our team – led by Nodesh Shyamsunder, BDS, and Jasleen Raina, DDS — offers dental implants and the sinus lift surgery you may need beforehand. 

This month’s blog explains what a sinus lift is and why it’s performed.

Explaining sinus lifts

A sinus lift — also referred to as sinus augmentation — is a procedure used to make anchoring dental implants significantly easier. You need sufficient jawbone quantity and quality when you get dental implants. If you don’t have enough high-quality jawbone, our team must perform a sinus lift first. 

During sinus lift surgery, our team adds more bone between your molars and premolars. This procedure ensures your dental implants have enough surface area to fuse with and stay secure. 

Who needs a sinus lift?

If you have less than 4-6 mm of bone height in your upper jaw, we recommend going through a sinus lift before getting implants. Many things affect jawbone quantity and quality, including:

• Birth defects
• Large sinus cavities 
• Periodontal disease (gum disease)
• Cancer

Even having a fragile jawbone can contribute to insufficient bone in your jaw. 

Whatever the reason, getting a sinus lift is the best course of action to ensure your dental implants last you a lifetime. 

What happens during a sinus lift?

Before you come in for your sinus lift surgery, make arrangements for a friend or family member to drive you home afterward since we give you a sedative to help you feel comfortable for the entirety of the procedure.

After we’ve numbed the treatment area with an anesthetic and you feel relaxed from the sedative, our team goes in and makes a series of incisions so we can lift the sinus floor. We can then insert the bone graft before stitching up the incision sites so they can heal. 

Depending on the type of sinus lift you need, we can sometimes place the dental implants in the same surgery. However, in some cases, we need to wait until the surgical sites have healed. 

You most likely experience some swelling and bruising while you recover from sinus lift surgery, but as long as you follow all post-surgery instructions, the discomfort should be minimal. 

For more information on sinus lift surgery, call our office at 904-246-6714 or schedule an appointment online today.