Sinus floor elevations now make it possible for many patients to have dental implants placed in the upper posterior of the mouth when years ago there was no other option other than to wear loose-fitting dentures. As a relatively new procedure, the sinus floor elevation is a graft that replaces bone between the bottom of the sinus cavity and the upper part of the jaw.

When a back tooth is lost in the upper part of the jaw, the floor of the maxillary sinus drops down into the space that was occupied by the root of the missing tooth. For an implant to be placed in that space, the sinus floor must be pushed back up to where it was originally by adding a bone substitute to hold the sinus floor in place. After several months of healing, the bone substitute becomes part of the patient’s jaw and dental implants can then be inserted into the stabilized bone.