If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that adding computers to things immediately makes them better (HAL 9000 notwithstanding). Searching, navigating, manufacturing… all improved by computerizing some or all of it. And the world of dental implant surgery is certainly no exception, as computer guided dental implants have revolutionized the industry.
Here’s the old-fashioned way of installing dental implants: Your surgeon opens up your gum and inserts a titanium post into the bone socket of your missing tooth. The gum flap is sutured shut, and you’re sent home for six to 12 weeks while the bone heals around the implant. After the healing, you come back in for surgery, where the surgeon opens up the gum again and installs the abutment. Then the gum is allowed to heal around the abutment (so not sutured shut). Finally, once everything is deemed secure enough, the replacement crown is installed on the abutment.
That sounds all well and good, albeit a little time-consuming. But the problems can occur before any of the surgeries even happen. Not every bone socket is in a prime place to receive a standard-sized implant, due to variations in the surrounding bone density. A bone socket that has sat dormant for a few years is even less likely to be able to support an implant, since the bone weakens over time as the socket fills in.
The old solution? If not enough viable sites presented themselves, or the only available sites didn’t provide enough support, then a bone graft might be used. This is an extra layer or two of bone that is attached to the site in order to provide more substance around the implant site. The bone can come from a variety of sources — your own bones, the bones of a living patient (like someone donating bone after having their hips replaced), a dead patient (organ donors), or even from a cow.
Computer guided dental implants not only speed up the entire process enormously by taking the guesswork out of where to place dental implants, but the precision of placement means that fewer bone grafts are needed, and the surgery is far less complicated. The procedure itself is faster, the healing time is reduced, and everything is much simpler than the traditional way. Enough said, right? For more, read this link.