A New Transalveolar Sinus Lift Procedure for Single Implant Placement: The Ebanist Technique. A Technical Description and Case Series

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, there are many techniques to compensate bone atrophies of the posterior maxilla in order to obtain an implant-supported rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE: This case series describes the Ebanist technique: a sinus lift procedure to be used in case of extremely resorbed bone crests (≤3 mm) allowing simultaneous implant placement. METHODS: With a dedicated cylindrical trephine bur, it is possible to harvest a cylinder of bone from a fresh mineralized frozen homologous bone block graft and to simultaneously create a trapdoor on the recipient site. The trapdoor cortical bone is detached from the sinus membrane and removed. Dental implant is placed into the graft before the grafting procedure since the cylindrical block, once inserted in the recipient area, is not able to oppose sufficient resistance to the torque needed for implant placement. RESULTS: Second-stage surgery and following prosthetic rehabilitation were performed after 5 months. In all cases, implant stability was manually checked and no pathological symptoms or signs were recovered at any follow-up visit. CONCLUSION: This technique can be considered a valid procedure for implant therapy on atrophic posterior upper maxillae, when the residual bone crest is extremely resorbed.