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| Photo by Daniel Frank of Unsplash |
Many of our dental patients at Glow Dental undergo a sinus lift to help ease their oral health issues. A sinus lift is often prescribed when a person doesn't have enough bone depth in their upper jawbone. A sinus lift is also done when a person's sinuses lay too close to the jaw preventing them from having dental procedures such as having dental implants.
What is involved in a sinus-lift procedure?
When you have sinus lift surgery, your dental surgeon will be adding bone to your upper jaw above your molar and premolar teeth. This is to help build up bone tissues between your maxillary sinuses and jawbone. This is done on both sides of your jaw on either side of your nose.
Your new bone-graft will need to go somewhere, so to make room for the bone material your sinuses will be lifted upwards allowing space for your new bone material to be inserted into the correct position. The procedure is quite common and is performed by either a periodontist or a specialist maxillofacial surgeon.
How does a sinus-lift help me?
Having a sinus-lift can be necessary if you don't have enough bone height in your upper jaw to support having dental implants. If you have missing teeth that need replacing with dental implants, you will need to have thick enough bones in your jaws to be able to support the titanium implant screws.
The most common area of your jaw for dental implants are the back teeth, or molars. However, a lot of people don't have enough bone present in their jaw for implants to be successfully placed. Quite often this is down to the anatomy of the skull where the area at the back of the upper jawbone contains a lower amount of bone than the lower jaw.
In some cases where a patient has suffered from periodontal disease that has led to tooth loss, it may well have led to a substantial amount of bone loss from the jaw too. Should a person go too long without replacing their missing teeth, the body will start to reabsorb the bone in the jaw leaving it unsuitable for dental implants.
Sinus-lift aftercare
Following your sinus-lift surgery, you may experience a bit of soreness and swelling to the area. You could see some bleeding from your mouth or nose so try not to stress the area through blowing your nose or forceful sneezing. Be careful to avoid any jolts or blows to the mouth or face while you recover as this can cause your bone-graft to loosen or move. You could also cause damage to the stitches that are holding everything in place.
It will take some time for your tissues to heal from the surgery and for your bone-graft to take, so your dentist will be able to prescribe you some anti-inflammatories, decongestants and saline sprays to help with your healing.
If you would like to know more about our sinus-lift treatments, contact our friendly team at Glow Dental to discuss your upcoming sinus-lift treatment if you are worried or have questions about the procedure.
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