Reply to: "The ENT's role in sinus lift management doesn't need misleading messages"

Reply to: " The ENT's role in sinus lift management doesn't need misleading messages " Replica a: " Il ruolo dello Specialista ORL nella gestione del grande rialzo sinusale non necessita di messaggi fuorvianti " Dear Editor, Two years ago we published an article in Acta Otorhi-nolaryngologica Italica entitled " Maxillary sinus elevation in conjunction with transnasal endoscopic treatment of rhino-sinusal pathoses: preliminary results on 10 consecutively treated patients " by g. Felisati et al. 1. Two years later, Dr. mario mantovani published a letter to the editor in the same journal 2 with some negative comments on our publication. Dr. mantovani widely cited a previous publication published in 2008 3 of which we are well aware, since the first author of the commented paper was one of the authors of this last manuscript. in the 2008 paper, the authors stated that: " The potentially reversible otorhinolaryngological contraindications to sinus lift surgery need to be corrected by means of conservative medical therapy or functional endoscopic sinus surgery – FESS – (the current gold standard for many naso-sinusal conditions amenable to surgery) to restore physiological maxillary sinus clearance and ventilation, after which it is possible to perform the sinus lift procedure to begin oral rehabilitation. " our proposal, published for the first time in 2010 and now opposed by mantovani, was exactly the same as that proposed by Pignataro, mantovani et al. in 2008, and also in previous publications by mantovani. The only difference is that, according to our approach and in selected cases, reversible contraindications to sinus lift requiring FESS for resolution can be treated in a single surgical session (FESS+sinus floor elevation (SFE)). it must be stressed, as we already have, that the combination of two different operations must be carefully planned and applied only in specific cases, by experienced surgeons. in the first part of the letter, Dr. mantovani, in the absence of any significant data, states that with our publication we may promote " diffusion of misleading messages ". We believe that this phrase does not merit specific comments except for a fundamental one, namely that research brings new contributions over time, and that today we have the data to support our approach. in the same letter to the editor, Dr. mantovani stated that: " any surgical manoeuver apt to compromise the delicate homeostasis of the nose and the maxillary sinus must be formally contraindicated in conjunction …