Current state of the art of computer ‐guided implant surgery

Abstract
The invention of computerized axial tomography (now known as computerized tomography) and developments of interactive software to allow virtual planning, with the aim to guide the surgery precisely toward a specific target, has dramatically improved general, as well as oral, surgery. Virtual dental implant planning allows for a prosthetically driven approach, resulting in the best possible design of the prosthesis, better esthetics, optimized occlusion and loading. This approach has also changed the surgical paradigm of using extensive flaps to obtain a proper view of the surgical area because flapless implant surgery, with or without immediate loading, has become more predictable. Two types of guided implant surgery protocols – static and dynamic – are described in the literature. The static approach, better known as computer‐guided surgery, refers to the use of a tissue‐supported surgical template. This reproduces the virtual implant position directly from computerized tomographic data and this information can be converted to guide templates to be used during surgery, with or without raising a mucoperiosteal flap. Dynamic guided surgery, also called navigation, reproduces the virtual implant position directly from computerized tomographic data and uses motion‐tracking technology to guide the implant osteotomy preparation. As the technology developed further, different levels of evidence were presented that showed various degrees of accuracy. Several proto...

Source: Periodontology 2000 - December 20, 2016 Category: Dentistry Authors: Jan D'haese, Johan Ackhurst, Daniel Wismeijer, Hugo De Bruyn, Ali Tahmaseb Tags: Review Article Source Type: research