Planning and Guided surgery
What is a surgical guide?
The placement of dental implants can be done without or with the help of a surgical guide. The surgical guide will help the practitioner during the placement of the implants.
To do this, the surgeon must first perform a 3D surgical planning by taking a CT scan and an optical impression of your teeth or a pre-existing prosthesis.
With the help of a computer program, the practitioner will be able to choose the type of dental implant (diameter and length) and determine the exact position in which he or she wishes to place the implant or implants.
Once these elements have been chosen, the surgeon will be able to 3D print a surgical guide that will be used on the day of the operation.
Today, there are three types of surgical guides:
- The guides with dental support
- Mucosal support guides (for large or complete edentulous teeth)
- Bone-supported guides (directly on the jawbone or maxilla).
What are the benefits of guided surgery?
- Gain in precision by determining the position and the implant axis.
- Reduction of iatrogenic risks (risks related to the surgical intervention).
- Realization of a mini-invasive approach allowing to reduce the hemorrhagic risks (in particular in the elderly patients and/or under anticoagulants), to allow a faster healing and a reduced bone resorption and to reduce the pain, the inflammation, the postoperative edema as well as the infectious risks.
- Reduced risk of invasion of the maxillary sinuses and the mandibular canal (inferior alveolar nerve).
- Improved prosthetic result (the ideal positioning of the implants allows a more favorable prosthetic result).
- Improved patient and practitioner comfort during implant placement.
- Saves time during implant placement.