Alveolar Ridge Preservation of Maxillary Molars for Implant Placement Without Sinus Lift Surgery: Case series

Copyright © 2018. The Korean Academy of Oral & Maxillofacial Implantology This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. OPEN ACCESS Sinus lif t procedure is f requently required for the maxillary molar implant placement. Previous studies have demonstrated alveolar ridge preservation (ARP) can maintain the dimensions of ridge height and width. However, there is a lack of studies which evaluated the effect of ARP to avoid sinus lif t procedure. Purpose of this study is to describe a method reducing the need of sinus lif t surgery by ARP in maxillary molar areas and to assess the feasibility clinically, radiologically and histologically. Ten maxillary molars in ten patients had severe vertical bone resorption with minimal residual bone height. They were considered having the high possibility of the necessity of sinus lif t procedure for dental implant af ter the extraction. After extraction, open healing ARP with deproteinized bovine bone mineral mixed with 10% collagen and resorbable collagen membranes was performed. After sufficient healing, dental implants were placed, and evaluated clinically and radiologically. Histological observation was conducted just before the implantation in one patient. Implants were successfully placed without sinus lift in all ten cases. All the implants were restored with no sign of complications, and patients are now in a close follow-up up to 20 months postloading. Histological observation showed minimal inflammatory reaction and newly formed bone was substantially noted. The ARP technique has successfully avoided the sinus lif t surgeries. It appears that this procedure may improve the simplicity of the clinical process for the clinicians and reduce the discomfort of patients. Abstract Case Report