Thanks a lot.
I am very concerned about screwing around with my sinuses, and will be
making this very clear to the oral surgeon.

I read there is a type of implant specifically designed for people
that need sinus lifts, which , according to the article I read,

"...can be placed in as little as 5.0mm of bone. They are called
Endopore and Innova Corporation fabricates them. There surface is
composed of thousands of tiny titanium spheres. This is the same
technology used by many orthopedic surgeons for hip replacement. These
tiny spheres tremendously increase the surface area, they also allow
the bone to function under tension.

This is not a very good implant. The surface is not good it should have
the texture similar to a golf ball also you want to have a thread and a
microthread to stabilize the implant. After placing any implant there
is a risk of bone resorbtion this can be up to 3mm if you only have 5mm
of bone there will be nothing left to hold the implant. You need to
leave the technical aspects of the procedure up to the oral surgeon,
there is a lot of marketing claims out there for all sorts of implants
and gadgets and you need to go to somebody who is familiar with what
works and what the majority of the industry uses as a standard.

In 2.0-3.0mm of bone a properly trained skilled surgeon can create the
opening for the implant push the floor of the sinus up through this
opening, place the bone graft and then the implant. This procedure is
referred to as a sinus lift through crestal approach. It is much more
conservative than the sinus lift procedure you referred to."

This is the first type of sinus lift I described.  Again 3mm does not
give you much room for healing, it has nothing to do with being a
skilled surgeon. Anybody who attempts a sinus lift unless they are a
complete idiot, has accumulated the necessary skill otherwise they
would not even attempt the procedure because of risk of failure.

Then the article goes on to say:

"Finally, a spark erosion precision partial denture is another option.
There is nothing on the roof of your mouth. It is virtually
undetectable. After you place it in your mouth a"jewelry like" clasp
is closed and it is extremely rigid."

Do you know about these alternatives?

Yes. there are many types of dentures including spark erosion that when
combined with implants can leave nothing on the roof of your mouth.
Spark erosion is a more ridgit type of prosthesis which depending on
how it is designed, may be too ridgit and work against you.

By the way, I paid $440 for a CT scan

ct scans of the jaws go for $250-$500

and $over $250 for a stent to
wear during the scan, just to make sure my bones can accept the
implants.
the scanning prosthesis is used as a radiographic marker for the ct
scans.
These days the ct scans can be outputed to special treatment planning
software such at "simplant" or "noble guide" from which accurate
surgical stents are made and ate used for precise implant placement.

After looking at this my surgeon informed me that I would
probably need a bone graft and sinus lift on the right upper side. He
said he would be discussing this with colleagues to make sure and I
will discuss the findings with him tomorrow.

But I am leaning towards going with one of these alternatives instead
of getting a bone graft and sinus lift; it just seems to invasive.

If what you are picking for yourself does not sound invasive now, wait
until it fails. Assuming your surgeon and dentist agree to your
proposal. Your surgeon may also not do osteopore implants. There are
other short implant systems other than Osteopore, such as Bicon this
does not mean that it is the best option for you. You need to consider
the size of the tooth the implant will be replacing and the load it
needs to carry. If you sinus expands further naturally after implant
surgery and you have a short implant and have not added bone for
aditional barrier your implant will get loose and fail.

Thank you.

How much of a risk is it that the sinus lift will screw up my sinuses
worse, though? Or cause me pain in the future as a result?

I'm going to try to get the prof to do the sinus lift, or at least be
there looking over the student's shoulder when he does it. This is a
top school, so I would hope they would insure that it is done right!

I was looking up sinus lift on the net and found a few stories of
patients complaining of sinus problems and sinus pain after it; and -
to be fair - also after root canals and extractions.

I'm going to make another thread with this question, but since you are
here,

Is there anything I can do to increase my chances of healing after
surgery and integrating the implants with the bone?

Supplements? calcium? etc.?

Thank you very much for all your info. My surgery for my 5 implants
and sinus lift will be in a few weeks, so I'm trying to settle my
fears and find out what I can do to increase the success of my
implants.