Loss of posterior teeth may result in excessive forces being placed on your remaining teeth. Fortunately, the use of dental implants and crowns allow you to replace these missing teeth. However, the position of the sinus in the upper posterior areas may be too low for proper placement of dental implants.
An innovative procedure called Sinus Lift or Sinus Augmentation allows the sinus floor to be repositioned, creating enough space to properly place an implant. Various grafting materials are used to encourage your bone to grow more quickly into the area, helping to stabilize the dental implant. Replacement of the grafting material with your own bone occurs, providing a firm foundation of hard tissue for implant placement.
Under certain conditions, an even simpler 
procedure can be utilized. When possible, the bone remaining under the sinus floor is gently “pushed up”, thus lifting the floor of the “dropped” sinus. Bone replacement materials are then placed beneath this lifted bone. Once again the bone grafts material is replaced as your body grows new bone into this area.
Sinus augmentation procedures are highly predictable, with studies reporting over 95% success. Following sufficient healing of a sinus augmentation (6-10 months), implants are placed in a predictable and successful manner. It is important to realize that if the sinus augmentation procedure does not result in enough bone for implant placement, additional bone may be regenerated through a second sinus augmentation procedure at the time of implant placement.
