Sinus floor elevation surgery for enabling dental implant placement. Approaches to reduce morbidity

PhD ceremony: Ms. D. Rickert, 14.30 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Sinus floor elevation surgery for enabling dental implant placement. Approaches to reduce morbidity

Promotor(s): prof. G.M. Raghoebar, prof. A. Vissink, prof. H.J.A. Meijer

Faculty: Medical Sciences

Implant placement in the posterior maxilla is often compromised by a lack of bone volume to allow for reliable implant placement. To provide a sufficient bone volume for implant placement in this region usually a maxillary sinus floor elevation procedure is performed. In this PhD study we evaluated different approaches aiming for reduction of the morbidity accompanying sinus floor elevation surgery.

A systematic review of the literature indicated that short-term implant survival is independent on grafting procedures applied when allowing for a sufficient healing time before implant placement. With regard to use of a piezoelectric device as an alternative for the use of conventional rotative instruments in sinus membrane elevation surgery, it was shown that the results of both approaches were comparable. Finally, our MSCs studies showed that the bovine bone + MSCs grafting approach seems to be a proper alternative to the sole use of autogenous bone when aiming for a procedure with a comparable healing time but less donor site morbidity. The one year implant survival in test sites was lower, but the condition of peri-implant tissues was comparable between control and test sites. The results of this study were translated into hypotheses as how to perform sinus floor elevation surgery when aiming for a combination of minimal donor site morbidity and a short healing time. These hypotheses need to be tested in future studies.