Wish I'd read this before; I would have at least considered it more
carefully. I was sold on the idea (by my surgeon and his prof) that
this is a very simple and not very invasive procedure; certainly among
sinus lifts, the type I had done is the least invasive type.

I thought long and hard about it but in the end I decided it was the
only way I could get some teeth in my upper right jaw, and I have
exactly ZERO molars there now. If I had at least one or two already, I
would not have done this. But having NONE, it seemed worth some risk.

In the end, even with your opinion, I'd have probably done it anyway,
for the above reason.

I felt the same way you do: Why risk messing with my already
problematic sinuses?

I did read in at least 2 places that it can happen that the sinus lift
HELPS the sinuses, and this also was told to me by my surgeon.

So, in the end, despite the risk, I felt it was pretty much necessary,
given my lack of molars to chew with on my right side of the my mouth.

    There really is no way to know.  And as a gp I really don't have the
professional standing to pass judgement on surgeons who presumably know
the ins and outs of this procedure.  IOW, I could just shoot my mouth
off, but what good would it do?
    OK, I'll shoot my mouth off.  I haven't had that many patients going in
for sinus lifts.  I tell them that the attitudes about entering the
maxillary sinus have changed tremendously in the 31 years I've been out
of dental school, and the success rates for this kind of surgery are
reported to be high.  BUT::
    Given my cautious nature, and my training that inadvertently entering
the maxillary antrum during an upper molar extraction was one of those
things to recoil in horror from, I also tell my patients that implants
are wonderful things, and I would not hesitate to have one placed in my
mouth, nor would I hesitate to get a bone graft.  A sinus lift however
is where I PERSONALLY would draw the line, because sinus sufferers seem
to be such a miserably suffering lot that I don't wish to tempt fate.
This is a PERSONAL, not a PROFESSIONAL judgement that I would make for
myself.
    When you add to the mix the existing history of sinus problems, it is
something that just seems like looking for trouble here.  Everything may
have been done perfectly according to Hoyle (or not) but I wouldn't look
for tsuris in this way.
     I hope you recover promptly.

Steve

Why won't anyone touch this thread?
It leads me to believe that it IS the mistake of an inexperienced
surgeon, and no one wants to come out and say that.
or...?

Whenever I get gum surgery or implant surgery from my grad-student
dentist, I always end up choking towards the end of the session - an
hour and a half or so...

I always seem to get a lot of saliva and/or crap from the surgery
(blood, etc.?) in my throat and I find it difficult to swallow and end
up coughing/choking. I do my best to control it as he is suturing or
finishing up but it becomes very uncomfortable.

Should I demand to let him let me get up and rinse/spit, or what?

I have only had this problem with my implant and related surgeries by
this grad-student dentist and I don't know if it's because I've never
had such long sessions before, or if it's his or the assistant's
inexperience in getting me "suctioned" properly or ...?

Yesterday I had the gums cut open to reveal the 4 implants I had in
July (to prepare for crowns, finally!) and I was choking like crazy at
one point so he said, "Do you need to rinse?" and before I could say
yes, he said "We're almost done..."...

so I waited... another HALF HOUR of choking!

I hate to be a difficult patient so I just put up with it, but this
seems somewhat abusive and in retrospect I think I should have
demanded to get up and spit...

What is a patient to do?