Digital Implant Planning and Guided Implant Surgery

In guided implant surgery, dentists utilize advanced machinery and imaging technology to guide them to manufacture and place implants more efficiently, precisely, and accurately. This new and improved dental implant surgery allows the dentist to have a more complete picture of the patient's mouth and accurately produce the most appropriate dental implants. These steps that used to require many dental office visits can now be performed on the same day, concluding with the surgery. The evaluation of 3D data extracted from computerized tomography, but also more recently from optical scanner, together with modern implant planning software, allows to carefully simulate surgical and prosthetic phases. Implant sites can be decided before surgery according to bone volume and quality, location of anatomical structures (nerves, vessels, sinuses), prosthetic and aesthetic evaluations, and accurate one-to-one measurements of the width and height of bone in planned implant sites. The distances and angulations between implants can also be calculated. Moreover, a careful three-dimensional positioning of the implants allows for obtaining the best clinical results, especially in regard to aesthetic aspects. Guided implant surgery (GIS) allows to transfer planned rehabilitation projects directly into the surgical field. Guided-implant surgery could also be needed for minimally traumatic or flapless surgery, optimal implant positioning and immediate loading, along with the reduction of post operative pain.