What to Expect During and After Your Sinus Lift

Losing a tooth seems simple enough — the tooth is gone and you have a gap. Well, it’s not so simple, as you lose far more than meets the eye, including the bone in your jaw that anchors your teeth. In fact, after you lose a tooth, you lose up to half of the jawbone tissue in the area within the first year.

If that’s what’s happening in your upper jaw and there’s not enough high quality bone to support a dental implant, our next step is a sinus lift.

As experts in dental implants, the team at Willow Glen Dental Specialists appreciates that getting these superior replacement teeth isn’t always a direct path. All too often, our patients don’t have the necessary bone to anchor an implant, which is where bone grafting and the sinus lift come in. 

What we accomplish during a sinus lift

A sinus lift is a specific bone grafting procedure that we use for dental implants in your upper jaw. Your upper jaw is located just below your maxillary sinuses, which are hollow cavities that filter the air you breathe.

If you have insufficient bone in your jaw to support the metal post of a dental implant, we can beef up that support by lifting the floor of your maxillary sinuses.

During your sinus lift, which is also called a sinus augmentation, we first remove a piece of your jawbone and move it up to the floor of your sinus. We then fill in the hole we just made with a graft, which we might take from your own body or we might get from donor grafts.

In either case, our goal is to lift the floor of your sinus to create more bone to anchor the dental implant. This approach has proven to be very effective. One 15-year study found that bone grafts and dental implants boast 98.3% and 97.2% success rates, respectively. 

For your part, there’s not much you need to do during your sinus lift, and we make sure you’re perfectly comfortable with anesthesia throughout.

After your sinus lift

Once we complete your sinus lift, which we perform right here in our office, we send you home with complete aftercare instructions.

You can expect some soreness in your mouth afterward, and maybe some swelling and minor bleeding, but these side effects should only last a few days. During this time, we want you to use the tools that we prescribe, including:

• Saline spray to keep your nasal passages moisturized
• Medications to control pain and inflammation 
• Antibiotics
• Antimicrobial mouthwash
• Ice packs

We want you to be diligent about using these resources for about 7-10 days after your sinus lift. We also want to caution you about sneezing, which can be disruptive after a sinus lift. We know it’s tricky to prevent sneezing, but do what you can not to, especially during the first week or two of your recovery.

After about a week, you return to us so we can see how things are progressing. If everything looks good, it becomes a waiting game as your body integrates the bone grafts and builds more bone. 

Of course, if anything develops during your recovery, such as ongoing discomfort or anything else that concerns you, we want you to inform us straight away. 

While there’s no single timeline that everyone follows after a sinus lift, you should count on anywhere from 4 to 12 months before the bone becomes strong enough to support an implant. 

If you have more questions about your upcoming sinus lift, please don’t hesitate to contact our office in San Jose, California, at 408-478-9081. Or, you can request an appointment using our online form.