When you initially see a dentist in Ajax for dental implants, they will carefully assess your jawbone health. If you need dental implants to replace your upper back teeth, you may well need a treatment called a sinus lift or sinus augmentation. Although the name may initially sound alarming, a sinus lift is a very common procedure.
How Can My Dentist Tell If I Need a Sinus Lift?
When you first see us here at Durham Dental Implant Solutions to discover more about implant treatment, we will need to take some diagnostic x-rays and a cone beam CT scan. While x-rays produce high-quality 2-D images of your jaws and any natural teeth, a cone beam CT scan provides us with 3-D images that we can view from any angle. The CT scan is extremely useful in allowing our dental implant dentist in Pickering to measure the width and height of existing bone accurately and evaluate your sinus cavities.
Your sinus cavities are located just above your upper back teeth and are air-filled spaces. A sinus augmentation is a surgery that builds up bone in the upper jaw, between your molars and premolars. To make room for the additional bone, a dental implant dentist in Whitby will need to move the sinus membrane between your jawbone and your sinuses upwards. When the membrane is lifted, it creates additional space into which new bone grafting material is packed.
Why Would I Need a Sinus Lift?
Because the upper back teeth are so close to the sinus cavities, there is often insufficient bone height in the upper jaw as the bone here tends to be thinner. Other times the bone may have resorbed after tooth loss, and especially if you had periodontal disease or lost these teeth some time ago. Sometimes the sinuses are naturally too close to the jawbone. It’s essential there is enough bone to support the dental implants fully, hence the need for a sinus lift.
What Is the Process for a Sinus Augmentation?
We take every precaution to make sure the treatment process is as smooth and as comfortable as possible. Our dental implant dentists in Oshawa use the latest techniques and equipment during bone grafting procedures. We are particularly careful during a sinus lift, using ultrasonic PIEZOSURGERY®. This specialized technology is gentler and very accurate, allowing us to access the sinus cavity while protecting your gums and sinus membrane as much as possible. Using this technique allows our Clarington dental implant dentist to section bone with extreme precision, causing less bleeding, so healing is faster.
After first numbing the area to be treated, the jawbone is exposed so the dentist can cut a small opening in the bone. Next, the sinus membrane is gently lifted, creating a space that can be filled with bone grafting material. Afterwards, the incision is closed, and you can begin to heal. Afterwards, you may have some slight swelling or other side effects, but we can discuss these with you more fully and offer advice on keeping the surgery site clean during healing.
As your sinus lift in Newcastle begins to heal, the bone graft meshes with your bone, creating a strong foundation in which we can insert dental implants. Sometimes we use plasma rich growth factors, taking plasma from your blood to further speed up the healing process.
Our dentists have decades of dental implantology experience between them and routinely complete sinus lift augmentations in Courtice, so you are in safe hands. If you need this treatment, we can discuss it in far more detail with you and answer all your questions.
