For many years, dentists prepared and implemented dental implant procedures based on rough X-ray images or cone beam scans, followed by a lengthy planning process which involved a lot of blind spots. Today, 3D printing has eliminated the guesswork in such procedures, giving surgeons dental implant surgical guides to create accurate drill holes and flawless placements.
Computer-guided surgery is being increasingly used in different surgical specialties. This technology has been the object of study in Oral Implantology for more than 15 years.
American Dental has been a pioneer in Costa Rica, because as specialists in the subject, we know that 3-D printing has provided many benefits to dentistry, especially in the area of implant surgery, where growing the use of customized surgical guides eliminates improvised work and helps dentists place a high-grade dental implant with precision and safety.
You see, creating a customized surgical guide for a patient, it is often time-consuming and often out of the reach for most dentists, not for American Dental.
To create a surgical guide, our specialist takes an impression of the teeth, or digitally scan the area. Each produced guide usually takes a couple of days and can cost between $200 and $600, depending on the complexity of the procedure. Besides all of this perks, here are some of the main benefits of this tool:
Better results are obtained, because the case is better diagnosed and understood; in addition, because the most efficient use of available bone is achieved -both in its morphology and volume-, being able to place larger implants with better bone conditions.
Thus, by improving accuracy, the best clinical compromise between bone availability and the predicted final prosthesis is achieved, minimizing the risks by eliminating possible manual errors in implant placement. The clinical results are systematically reproducible, with control of the esthetics and function of the implant-supported prosthesis.
When it comes to placing implants, no case should be considered ‘easy enough’. Often when reviewing free-hand cases after the fact, it’s discovered that the drilling angle is slightly different than what it appeared to be during the surgery, or that the trajectory should have been moved over a few millimeters in one direction to provide better spacing between the adjacent teeth.
Using an implant guide system for every surgery makes good business sense, and results in predictable patient care.
The surgeon's job is faster, quieter and more comfortable since he is always guided by the pre-established trajectories in the cylinders of the surgical template. There´s no need to "see to operate", the specialist just has to secure the stable position of the guide to get to work.
By comparison, the technique of computerized surgical guides is less expensive and requires less effort to be implemented in practice, than the traditional procedure. It is sufficient to become familiar with the software, whose use is easy and intuitive.
Today, implant placement can be performed accurately and with complete control from preplanning to surgery. A number of computer tools based on the TAC data have proven their reliability widely. The treatment thus becomes highly predictable, optimized, simple, and with less risk. These advantages justify their routine use in a growing number of clinical cases. Schedule your evaluation appointment today with one of our specialists, at American Dental, Costa Rica.