The clinical and radiological outcomes of sinus augmentation procedures have been published in several studies [1, 3, 6, 7]. However, little data on the physical and psychological impact of this procedure on the patient is available yet. The present study evaluated pre-operative and post-treatment OHRQoL self-assessment scores of patients treated with dental implants after sinus augmentation procedures.

The one-year and five-year survival rates of the investigated implants were 95.4 and 94.4%. These results are in accordance with the recent literature. In a current meta-analysis, mean implant survival rates were 98.6 ± 2.6% for sinus augmentation procedures using bone substitute materials alone, 88.6 ± 4.1% for sinus augmentation procedures using bone substitute materials mixed with autologous bone, and 97.4 ± 2.2% for sinus augmentation procedures using autologous bone alone [1]. The mean follow-up of the investigated studies was 39.7 ± 34.6 months with a range from 4 to 170 months. Corbella et al. showed in a recent systematic review a survival rate from 95.4 to 100% after 3-year follow-up for internal sinus lift and a survival rate from 75.57 to 100% for external sinus lift [5]. Del-Fabbro et al. estimated a mean weighted cumulative implant survival at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years as 98.12, 97.40, 96.75, and 95.81% [6].

In the present study, OHRQoL after sinus augmentation was investigated using a modified version of the G-OHIP. The results showed significant better values for all three subcategories after the treatment, indicating a remarkable benefit for the patients. Concerning the influence of implant indication, edentulous patients showed the most distinct improvement after the procedure. So far, many studies have examined the quality of life in patients treated with dental implants [25–28]. However, to our best knowledge, studies investigating quality of life after sinus augmentation are very rare. Mardinger et al. examined the patient’s perception of immediate post-operative recovery after sinus-floor augmentation [29]. In this prospective study, health-related quality of life questionnaire was given to 76 patients evaluating patient perception of recovery in the four areas pain, oral function, general activity, and other symptoms. The results showed that average and maximal pain peaked on post-operative day 1 and improved on post-operative days 4 and 5. Difficulty in mouth opening was greatest on post-operative day 1 and improved on post-operative day 3. Swelling peaked on post-operative day 2 and improved on post-operative day 5. The authors concluded that an average patient undergoing sinus augmentation procedure should expect recovery within 5 days. In a prospective cohort study, Reisine et al. examined quality of life changes among post-menopausal women getting dental implants with bone augmentation procedures using OHIP-14 questionnaire [30]. The results showed that patients’ quality of life improved continuously from the pre-treatment to the 9-month assessment. Type of augmentation procedure had no significant influence on quality of life. Better et al. included 18 patients in a prospective clinical study to investigate patient’s perception of immediate post-operative recovery after sinus augmentation, using a minimally invasive implant device [31]. The minimally invasive implant device consisted of a self-tapping implant which contained an L-shaped internal channel allowing the introduction of liquids through the implant body and into the maxillary sinus. The results showed that patients’ perceptions of post-operative symptoms in the tested areas pain, oral function, general activity, and other symptoms were mostly scored “not at all” or “very little” on post-operative day 1, indicating a minimum discomfort through this procedure for the patient. In a prospective non-randomized clinical trial, changes in OHRQoL and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after bone graft harvesting for dental implants with respect to the donor site were examined [32]. Therefore, autologous bone grafts were harvested in 23 patients either from an intra-oral or an extra-oral donor site, followed by implant placements. OHRQoL was analyzed using the OHIP-49, HRQoL was measured using the short-form 36. In the results, bone harvesting from an extra-oral donor site deteriorated HRQoL substantially more compared with intra-oral donor sites. OHRQoL impaired from baseline to first follow-up in both groups; however, changes were not statistically significant. The authors concluded that in clinical decision-making regarding donor site for bone graft harvesting, patients and clinicians should consider expected decrease in HRQoL if deciding to use extra-oral donor sites. Therefore, the authors recommended to prefer intra-oral donor sites whenever possible. In a recent study of Nickenig et al., OHIP-G 21 was evaluated in 8689 patients with various kinds of indications (free end gap, posterior single-tooth gap, anterior single-tooth gap, dental gap, and edentulous jaw) for dental implants [33]. Comparable to our results, the results showed an improved OHRQoL for all indications after prosthetic reconstruction. The modification of our OHIP score complicates the comparability of the baseline results of the mentioned study with our results. However, also patients with edentulous jaws and patients with an anterior single-tooth gap benefited most significantly from the treatment.