POSITIONING OF A CONTEXTUAL IMPLANT ALONG WITH A SINUS LIFT ANCHORED WITH A BLOCK OF HETEROLOGOUS BONE

Abstract

During a sinus lift procedure the main requirement in order to position an implant is to have a maxillary sinus floor cortical bone thick enough to guarantee a primary stability in the implant inserted. In this way, the healing process is facilitated and osseointegration of the titanium surface may occur simultaneously, thus reducing the waiting time for the engraftment of the implant into the body. Unfortunately, these conditions are not always present. Hence, the need of developing an alternative approach that could simultaneously allow to perform sinus floor elevation along with an implant placement. Here we present the case of a 62-year-old patient that requires implant-prosthetic rehabilitation from 1.2 to 1.6 at diagnosis. In this study, we reported a novel application derived from the use of a heterologous bone scaffold (SmartBone@) in a sinus lift procedure. We showed the successful implant along with sinus lift with SmartBone@, both at the time of the surgery and after follow-up of the patient at 10 months from the implant. The possibility to perform simultaneously the contextual implant along with sinus lift dramatically reduced the waiting time for the patient of minimum 5-6 months required for osseointegration of the grafted biomaterials, before performing the implant procedure. This surgery represents an advance both in terms of medical technique and as life-benefit for the patient.