Sinus Lifts
The sinus cavities are located behind your cheeks and on top of the roots of your upper teeth. Some of the roots of the natural upper teeth extend up into the sinuses. When these upper teeth are removed, there is often just a thin wall of bone separating the sinus and the mouth and in some cases only the membrane of tissue. Dental implants need lots of hard, stable bone to hold them in place. When the sinus wall is very thin, it is impossible to place dental implants in this bone.
There is a solution and it’s called a sinus graft or sinus lift. A sinus lift is surgery that adds bone to your upper jawbone where the tooth or teeth used to be under the membrane that encloses the sinus cavity. To make room for the bone, the sinus membrane has to be moved upward, or lifted; then granules of sterile allograft bone is inserted into the space created on the floor of the sinus. Keep in mind that the floor of the sinus is the roof of the upper jaw.
After several months of healing, the bone becomes part of the patient’s jaw and dental implants can be inserted and stabilized in this new sinus bone. The sinus graft makes it possible for many patients to have dental implants when years ago there was no other option other than wearing loose dentures.
We are one of the only dentists in Indiana that utilize your body’s natural growth factors to establish the best foundation for the lift. Before we place the allograft, we combined it with special proteins in your blood known as Platelet-Rich Plasma, or PRP. These proteins act like Miracle Grow for whatever it touches and stimulate harder and faster bone formation. This ensures that our sinus lifts will be harder and heal faster than sinus lifts done by other doctors.
At Keystone Dentistry, we do out utmost to make every procedure as predictable and simple as possible for our patients. To learn more information about the Indianapolis area practice, please contact our office today.