Clinical Study on Korean Posterior Maxillae Related to Dental Implant Treatment

Abstract

Purpose of study: The purpose of this study was to provide adequate diagnostic guideline for the maxillary sinuses prior to dental implant treatment for edentulous posterior maxillary areas. For this purpose, our procedure involves the estimation of the remaining alveolar bone height, the examination of the anatomical variation in the maxillary sinuses (e.g. sinus septum), and the evaluation of the incidence of preoperative pathological conditions in the maxillary sinuses. Materials and Methods: We selected 189 patients to undergo computerized tomography (CT) in order to account for the posterior maxillary anatomy found in patients of Korean ethnicity. We evaluated the following using Dentascan software: Remaining alveolar bone height, incidence of sinus septum, and rate of preoperative pathologic conditions in the maxillary sinus. The average amount of remaining alveolar bone height was analyzed using the student’s t-test for differences according to anatomical site, and the ANOVA was used for the differences according to age group with the level of significance set at 0.05. Results: Alveolar bone heights of upper first premolar, second premolar, first molar, and second molar was 12.24 mm, 10.37 mm, 7.16 mm, and 7.15 mm, respectively with statistical significance (p < 0.05). Incidence of sinus septum as an anatomic variation was 17 out of 189 cases (9.0%).Incidence of mucosal thickening as a pathologic variation was 82 out of 189 cases (43.4%). Conclusion: In treatment planning of posterior maxillary edentulous area of Koreans, the consideration of augmentation surgery for maxillary sinus is required in maxillary molar area before dental implant installation, and preoperative screening of the asymptomatic maxillary sinuses can be regarded as a reasonable preoperative procedure in the planning of dental implant treatment on the posterior maxillary edentulous area.