Maxilla Sinus Grafting With Marine Algae Derived Bone Forming Material: A Clinical Report of Long-Term Results

Purpose: Autogenous bone grafting continues to be considered the gold standard for sinus grafting. For the past 15 years the author has used an alternative graft material and followed-up the input/output statistic of implants to evaluate if this material results similar to the autogenous bone graft. Histomorphometric evaluations of graft materials show how much new bone is formed and if the graft material is resorbed.

Materials and Methods: In our study we used a marine derived carbonated red algae that is chemically converted into hydroxyapatite (HA). This material is distributed worldwide as the Communaute Europeenne approved material AlgiPore (Dentsply Friadent, Mannheim, Germany), as the US Food and Drug Administration approved material C GRAFT (The Clinician Preference LLC, Golden, CO), and the Russian approved material AlgOss (Unexim Co, Moscow, Russia). A total of 209 sinus grafts were performed on 118 patients who presented with a severely resorbed maxillary alveolar process with 1 to 5 mm (mean, 3.6 mm) of remaining bone. The available bone was comparable to Class D bone as described by Simion et al. After 6 months implants were placed and 6 months later the implants were loaded.

Results: From September 5, 1990, to September 1, 2004, the author performed 209 sinus grafts on 118 patients. The longest observation period of loaded implants in this study is 156 months (13 years). Implant loss was 27 out of 614 loaded implants (4.4%), showing a survival rate of 95.6%. Smokers and women over 50 are included. Although AlgiPore/C GRAFT/AlgOss (ACA) undergoes a resorption process, we found only 14% volume loss after 6.4 months compared with 49.5% after 6 months when autogenous bone was used.

Conclusion: This retrospective study of over 14 years shows once again that the sinus lift procedure with grafting of the sinus floor and subsequent implant placement is a proven method. This 14-year longitudinal study shows that the marine derived HA material ACA in a mixture with approximately 10% autogenous collector bone and blood or platelet rich plasma is able to enhance enough new bone in 6 months to allow implant osseointegration after 6 more months with a high implant survival rate.