Assessment of the sinus lift operation by magnetic resonance imaging

Sinus lift operations are done to increase bone thickness before placement of osseointegrated implants in areas of the maxilla where there is insufficient bone between the lower border of the maxillary sinus mucosa and the oral mucoperiosteum. Full sectional information should be available to the surgeon before the sinus lift operation so that the outcome can be predicted, and to allow for assessment of the volume of bone graft required. It is also useful to assess the success of the procedure before placement of the implant, and to choose the implant length and orientation required for maximum stability. We describe the use of a 0.2 tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to image a patient before and after sinus lift. MRI gave full sectional information of the bone on both occasions without using ionizing radiation. The quality of the images was good, and should be considered as an alternative to the accepted gold standard of computed tomography (CT), which exposes the patient to a high dose of radiation.