Objective: Oral surgery is compounded by safe and well-known techniques and presents a low rate of complications. When the superior alveolar ridge is approached, surgery may result in oroantral fistula or tooth or implant dislocation in maxillary sinus. Those conditions lead to development of the maxillary sinusitis that, if underestimated, may evolve in orbital cellulitis and cerebritis or cerebral abscess. Our work aimed to compare the surgical techniques suitable for treatment of those complications and define the better surgical strategy.
Methods: Between 2005 and 2010, 55 patients, presenting with displaced or migrated oral implants in the paranasal sinuses, with oroantral communication or with paranasal sinusitis of odontoiatrogenic origin, were visited and referred for treatment in the Maxillofacial Surgery Department of the University of Rome "La Sapienza." Surgical treatment consists of one of the following procedures: functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS); intraoral approach to the sinus with Caldwell-Luc technique; and oroantral fistula closure with a local flap, alone or combined with FESS.
Results: The study group consisted of 55 patients: 28 female and 27 male patients aged 43 to 78 years (mean, 60 years). All had undergone oral surgery before our first visit: 17 patients had a prosthetic implant surgery (3 lateral-approach sinus augmentation and 15 implant placement). Seventeen patients had tooth extractions, 7 did root canal treatments, and 14 had sinus maxillary augmentation.
Conclusions: Functional endoscopic sinus surgery has slowly taken the place of the Caldwell-Luc technique in treating odontogenic maxillary sinusitis. Advantages of FESS are the less invasivity, the preservation of sinus anatomy and physiology, the reduction of recovery time, and oral rehabilitation without loosening efficacy compared with the previous transoral approach.