Graftless sinus floor augmentation of the highly atrophic posterior maxilla before implant placement

When the upper jaw loses its teeth, it can lead to insufficient bone for implant placement for a click prosthesis. Enhancement of the upper jaw is then necessary. Bone grafts are used to enhance the upper jaw. Bone grafts can originate from the patient himself, donors, animals, or are made of synthetic materials. In this PhD research, a sinus elevating technique is described where no bone grafts are used. Ten patients were operated and the conventional and experimental technique was performed in each patient. Bone samples proved new bone formation at the experimental side. Implant survival was 86.2% on the test side and 96.7% on the control side. In all candidates dental rehabilitation was achieved. Patient satisfaction was high. From this thesis, it can be concluded that the graftless technique can be seen as a potential alternative procedure to create bone volume in the maxillary sinus for implant placement.