A new biological approach to the maxillary sinus lift technique

The maxillary sinus lift technique consists in grafting a bone substitute below the sinus membrane to achieve sufficient thickness for implant stability. The golden standard as a bone substitute is the patient's autologous bone, which is not only fully biocompatible but is also able to stimulate bone regeneration through the osteoinductive factors it contains. Nonetheless, it has to be withdrawn from a donor site, and this increases both the operative risk and creating increased patient discomfort. In this case report, we present the results of a maxillary sinus lift achieved by grafting a heterologous bone substitute of equine origin, totally deantigenized through enzymatic treatment. The bone substitute was applied together with two osteopromoting heterologous compounds: an angiogenesis and a morphogenesis activator. At 6 months, the X-ray examinations show a greatly regenerated bone area at the grafting site. The histological examinations show that the grafted material was nearly completely remodeled and substituted by vital endogenous newly-formed bone tissue.