Sinus Lifting

What Is a Sinus Lift?

A sinus lift is the procedure that creates enough bone height in the upper back jaw for a dental implant. Above your upper molars and premolars sits the maxillary sinus, an air-filled cavity separated from the mouth by a thin shell of bone and a delicate lining called the Schneiderian membrane. When upper back teeth are lost, two things happen at once: the ridge below resorbs, and the sinus expands downwards into the space. What is left can be three or four millimetres of bone where an implant needs ten.

The operation lifts that membrane gently upwards and places graft material in the space created beneath it. Over the following months the graft turns into your own bone, and the implant is anchored in it. Nothing is placed inside the sinus itself, and the sinus keeps functioning exactly as before.

Why Is a Sinus Lift Needed?

Because the upper back jaw is where bone runs out first and where implants have the least to hold on to. The bone there is softer than in the lower jaw to begin with, chewing forces on molars are the highest in the mouth, and the sinus is always ready to occupy any space that becomes free. The longer an upper molar has been missing, the more likely a sinus lift becomes.

Other cases arise after gum disease has destroyed bone around teeth that were still in place, after a difficult extraction that damaged the socket, or simply because the sinus is naturally large - some patients have a low sinus floor with no tooth loss at all.

Open and Closed Sinus Lift: the Difference

Which one applies is not a preference and not a price tier - it is a measurement. The CBCT scan gives the remaining height in millimetres at the exact planned implant position, and the technique follows from that number.

How Is a Sinus Lift Performed?

1. CBCT assessment. Bone height, sinus anatomy, the position of any septa inside the sinus and the state of the lining are all checked before anything is planned. An active sinus infection is treated first.
2. Local anaesthetic. The procedure is done awake and painlessly. Sedation is available for anxious patients.
3. Access. Either through the implant channel in the closed technique, or through a small window in the side wall of the jaw in the open technique.
4. Lifting the membrane. The lining is separated from the bone floor with specialised instruments and raised carefully. This is the step that defines the operation, and it is done slowly.
5. Grafting. Graft material is placed into the space beneath the raised membrane and gently condensed.
6. Closure. The window is covered with a resorbable membrane where needed and the gum is sutured tension-free. Sutures are removed after seven to ten days.

Can the Implant Be Placed at the Same Time?

Yes, when the bone that remains is enough to hold the implant firmly on the day - as a working guide, around five millimetres or more. In that situation the sinus lift and the implant are done in one appointment and heal together, which saves you both a surgery and a trip.

Where less bone remains, the implant would not be stable and forcing it in costs the implant. The graft is placed first, given four to six months to mature, and the implant follows. We would rather tell you that before you book flights than during the appointment.

How Long Does It Take?

The procedure itself takes 30 to 60 minutes for a closed lift and 60 to 90 minutes for an open one. Healing is the longer part: four to six months for the graft to mature, then the implant if it was not placed at the same time, then a further three to four months of integration before the crown. From first appointment to final crown, a staged upper molar case realistically takes eight to twelve months. Anyone quoting you a week has left something out.

After a Sinus Lift

• Do not blow your nose for at least two weeks. If you must sneeze, sneeze with your mouth open. Pressure in the nose is pressure on the graft.
• No straws, no smoking, no diving, no flying if it can be avoided in the first ten days. Ask us before booking a return flight sooner than that.
• Sleep with your head raised on an extra pillow for the first few nights, and apply cold from the outside on the first day.
• Take the prescribed medication in full - the antibiotic and, where prescribed, the nasal decongestant are part of the treatment, not optional extras.
• Expect swelling that peaks on the second day, some bruising, and occasionally a little blood-tinged discharge from the nose on that side in the first days. That is normal.
• Call us if pain increases from day four, if discharge becomes purulent, or if air seems to pass between your nose and mouth.

Eating After a Sinus Lift

Soft, lukewarm food for the first three days, chewed on the opposite side: soups that are not hot, yoghurt, eggs, pasta, mashed vegetables. Avoid anything with small hard particles - nuts, seeds, crisps, rice - for a week, and avoid very hot drinks entirely on the first day. Drink from a glass rather than a bottle or a straw, since suction is exactly what the graft does not need. Most patients are eating normally after ten days.

Smoking After a Sinus Lift

This is the one part of the aftercare where there is no flexible version. Smoking is the strongest single predictor of sinus graft failure: it reduces blood supply to the healing site, the heat and suction disturb the clot, and the chemical load impairs bone formation directly. Two weeks minimum, and longer is better. If you are not able to stop for that period, say so honestly at the planning stage - the plan can be adjusted, but the biology cannot.

Risks and Side Effects

In experienced hands a sinus lift is a routine, well-documented procedure with success rates for the graft above ninety per cent. The known risks should still be stated plainly:

• Membrane perforation is the most common event, occurring in a minority of cases. Small tears are repaired with a collagen membrane during the same procedure and usually make no difference to the outcome; a large tear may mean stopping and rescheduling.
• Sinusitis can develop, most often in patients who already had sinus problems, which is why the sinus is assessed on the CBCT beforehand.
• Graft infection or partial loss is uncommon and is managed by removing the affected material and regrafting once the site has settled.
• Swelling and bruising are expected rather than complications, and resolve within a week.

Is a Sinus Lift Painful?

Not during: local anaesthetic makes the procedure painless, and patients are often surprised by how little there is to feel. Afterwards, most describe pressure and fullness on that side rather than sharp pain, controlled with ordinary painkillers for two to three days. A closed lift usually feels like a normal implant placement. An open lift brings more swelling but not, in most patients, more pain.

Who Is Suitable for a Sinus Lift?

Most healthy adults with insufficient bone height in the upper back jaw. The situations that change the plan are chronic sinusitis or nasal polyps that need treating first, heavy smoking, uncontrolled diabetes, untreated gum disease, and medication affecting bone metabolism such as bisphosphonates or denosumab. Previous surgery on the sinus and a history of radiotherapy to the head or neck must also be disclosed. Bring a complete list of your medicines, including anything injected every few months.

Coming to Turkey for a Sinus Lift

Send your existing panoramic X-ray or CBCT through WhatsApp before anything else. From the images we can usually tell you whether your case is likely to be a one-trip or a two-trip plan, and that is the information that determines your travel, not a price list.

• First visit, four to six days. Examination, CBCT and intraoral scan on site, the sinus lift, and the implant in the same session where the remaining bone allows. A review appointment before you fly home.
• Healing at home, four to six months. Reviewed remotely from photographs; sutures can be removed by a dentist locally.
• Second visit, five to seven days. Confirmation scan, implant placement if it was staged, or the prosthetic work if the implant is already integrated.

Flying is the one detail patients forget to ask about. Cabin pressure changes act directly on a freshly grafted sinus, so we plan your return flight around the procedure rather than the other way round.

Why We Do Not Publish Sinus Lift Prices

Because the same words cover two different operations. A closed lift with a simultaneous implant and an open lift with staged implants differ in time, materials and number of visits, and no one can tell which one you need without a three-dimensional scan. Package prices handle this by quoting the simplest version and billing the rest as extras once you are already in the country. After your examination you receive a written plan naming the technique, the materials and the number of visits, and the figure in it does not move unless the findings do.

Sinus Lifting in Kusadasi

Our clinic is in Cumhuriyet Mahallesi in Kusadasi, with five treatment units and both the CBCT scanner and the intraoral scanner on site, so your sinus anatomy is scanned, read and planned in the same building on the same day. The clinic is authorised by the Turkish Ministry of Health, and your first examination is carried out by Tugce Arslan, who plans the case personally.

If you have been told that implants are impossible in your upper jaw, that assessment was probably made without a three-dimensional scan. Send us what you have and we will give you a straight answer.

The information on this page is general and does not replace a clinical examination. Whether a sinus lift is appropriate, and which technique applies, can only be decided after examination and radiographic assessment.