Among the pre-implant surgical procedures for bone reconstruction, the maxillary sinus surgery has been shown to have a high clinical predictability (Wallace et al. 2003,Del Fabbro et al. 2004-2008-2012-2013 a-b, Pjetursson et al. 2008, Testori et al. 2012).
Historically in cases of bone atrophy where the residual bone is less than 4 mm, the lateral approach was utilized.