Flapless, Sutureless Sinus Lift

In Korea, you can go to any neighborhood dental clinic at any time

and receive implant treatment quickly and conveniently.

However, overseas, it is not that simple.

There are quite a few cases of people living abroad visiting the dentist.

People who have lived overseas often say they

really, really envy Korea’s medical system.

This patient is a young woman living in Germany.

She visits Korea once every year or two.

And every time she comes, she always visits Arumdeuri.

Because she was not naturally someone with strong gums,

there is usually one or two things that need treatment every time she visits.

The X-ray shows bone loss.

We first treated the gums,

but in reality, implant treatment is the best option in this situation.

Implant treatment does not finish in just one week,

so after a lot of consideration, she returned to Germany.

While staying in Germany, her condition gradually worsened,

and she wanted to receive treatment.

But even making a basic treatment appointment

took almost a month,

and not only was it expected that the treatment would take even longer after that,

but the cost would also be significant...

So we continued ongoing consultation through messenger.

Then, one month before coming to Korea,

she had the tooth extracted.

The surgical area shows that the maxillary sinus is divided into two chambers.

One month after extraction

is an awkward stage in many ways.

The extraction site has not fully healed,

and there is too little remaining bone.

In this case, a sinus lift is especially needed,

but as you can see on the CT image, the maxillary sinus

is divided into two chambers rather than one.

In such cases, lateral sinus lift surgery requires a larger incision area,

which can cause a lot of discomfort for the patient.

But there was too little bone remaining,

and because she had to leave the country,

there was no time to perform a redo surgery if the procedure failed.

A lateral approach would be the usual choice, but using

"minimally invasive implant" treatment,

we decided to replace the lateral sinus lift with a flapless, sutureless approach

and make the most of the healthy cells in the extraction site.

Key points

• Flapless, sutureless sinus lift

• Preserving the healthy cells in the extraction site

Preserving the healthy cells in the extraction site??

Many of you may be hearing this for the first time.

Process of healing after tooth extraction

Stage	Timing	Main cells/tissues	Features
Blood clot formation	Immediately after extraction~24h	Platelets, fibrin	Blood clot formation, protection of the extraction socket
Inflammatory phase	1–3 days	Neutrophils, macrophages	Removal of bacteria and debris, secretion of growth factors
Proliferative phase	3 days–3 weeks	Fibroblasts, capillaries	Granulation tissue formation, epithelial regeneration begins
Bone healing phase	3 weeks–6 months	Osteoblasts, osteoclasts	Remodeling from woven bone to lamellar bone

Looking at the table above, for the alveolar bone to heal completely,

it takes as long as 6 months.

During the healing process of the extraction site,

important cells are present in the blood clot.

Because this patient had only had the tooth extracted one month earlier,

the extraction site was made up of soft regenerative tissue.

If a standard implant is placed in this state,

the regenerative tissue is scraped away and bone grafting is performed in that area.

In this case, that process actually interferes with healing

and delays recovery.

If the implant had been placed immediately after extraction,

there would have been no need to remove regenerative tissue,

but because she was overseas,

there was a timing issue.

Using a flapless, sutureless sinus lift,

we preserved the regenerative tissue in the extraction site

and were able to reduce pain and swelling,

as well as lower the cost.

In the patient’s mouth, there are no incision sites

or stitch marks at all.

The treatment has been completed perfectly.

Because she lives overseas, the treatment had to be carried out on a tight schedule,

and since this was her first implant procedure, she was very worried,

but she was extremely satisfied.

When planning treatment in Germany,

she heard many frightening things about the lack of bone,

and she said it was unbelievable that it could end so simply.

For those who find a sinus lift frightening even in name alone,

I hope a flapless, sutureless sinus lift can help ease concerns about pain and cost.

This post was written with the prior consent of an actual patient based on the details of treatment provided.

The duration and results of dental treatment, procedures, and surgery may vary depending on the individual.