Maxillary sinus floor elevation combined with a vertical onlay graft.

We performed maxillary sinus floor elevation combined with a vertical onlay graft for a total of 11 sides of nine patients (1 woman and 8 men) in our Hospital. On CT, the preoperative minimum alveolar bone thickness with a mean of 1.8 mm was improved to 15.3 mm within a month after this surgery. A total of 20 dental implants were placed and there was only one failed implant. With the average follow-up of 15.6 months, an average of 3.4 mm of bone absorption was found in the site of the maxillary sinus and 1.1 mm in the site of the onlay graft. The crown-implant ratio in all cases was within the permissible range. Consequently, this bone augmentation surgery was considered to be useful.