An Atraumatic Approach to Internal Sinus Lifting: The Motorized Expansion Drill Technique

This case series demonstrates internal maxillary sinus elevation and placement of 37 posterior implants in 34 private practice patients using sequential motorized expander burs exclusively to infracture the sinus border and embed bone graft material (allograft or xenograft) for vertical augmentation. With this technique, manual osteotome/malleting was completely avoided, improving surgical control and the patient experience. Sinus borders were lifted by a mean of 3.92 mm in ridges that had an average residual height of 7.52 mm. All implants achieved high insertion torque values (≥90 Ncm), obtained primary stability, and were successfully restored without complications. Anecdotally, the type of bone graft used did not appear to influence the outcome.