Guided Implant Placement: The New Standard

With the latest technology, guided implant surgery is the new standard to achieve accurate, predictable, and safe implant placement. Using a CT scan and a custom made stent based on the ct scan offers the surgeon the most accurate tool and guide to place the implants.  However, using guides for implant surgery has remained rare.  In 2014, less than 150,000 computer-generated surgical guides were generated, and this number is predicted to increase by two fold by 2019.  In 2012, there were more than 21 million dental implant placements, so utilizing surgical guides is just a tiny fraction of the implant surgery.

What are the reasons for the low number of surgical guides?  There are many different factors, including high and additional cost, time-consuming labor, complex work flow, working with a third party, learning new technology, etc.  Other reasons include complications of using guides, such as cooling the surgical instruments and reduced irrigation during the surgery, increased surgical time, patient factor, and cost of the software.