Is HSC the same as Summers/Balloon Techniques?

[matthew]

There has been a lot of confusion about Dr. Chen's Hydraulic Sinus Condensing (HSC) technique, people who do not know the technique well always seem to assume that is a modified version of Summers' technique. Some people even think that it is the same as the balloon technique (when in fact the inventor of the balloon technique actually attended one of Dr. Chen's HSC courses BEFORE he invented the balloon technique).

HSC is in fact very different from Summers' technique, the only thing they have in common is the fact that they both use a crestal approach, other than that they are different in every other aspect. One very important difference in the two techniques is that Summers' technique uses a mallet to "crack" the bone, while Chen's technique uses a drill to get through the bone. With Summers' technique you need at least 4mm of original bone, while Chen's technique can be performed with as little as 1mm of original bone. Summers' technique is also handicapped by the presence of the septum, whereas Chen's technique is unaffected by the presence of the septum.

In all actuality these are the only two techniques that use the crestal approach, anything else is a modification of those two techniques.

Now I will explain about the balloon technique. The balloon technique is not an actual technique, a balloon cannot penetrate the bone, it is simply an instrument used to dissect the sinus membrane. The balloon belongs to the same family of instruments/materials that are used for this purpose such as the sinus elevator, sinus curette, bone grafting material, the sinus condenser, and water. All of these things are used to raise/dissect the sinus, they have nothing to do with penetrating the bone in order to reach the sinus. Therefore in order to use one of these instruments/materials you still need to use some technique in order to penetrate the bone and get to the sinus membrane.

To summarize:
1) There are three sinus lifting techniques; the lateral window technique, the osteotome technique, and the hydraulic technique (The Piezo insert actuall falls into both the hydraulic and osteotome category, because it uses an oscillating motion to microscopically drill, and crack the bone at the same time).
2) There are two approaches, the buccal approach and the crestal approach.
3) There are many instruments and materials that help to facilitate the lifting of the sinus membrane, a balloon is just one of those.

I hope this will help many of you understand sinus procedures.

[matthew]

bump

[leonchen]

nicely written, didn't fall asleep in my courses