Dentist Kalamata – Athanasios Nikitopoulos
Dental implant surgery can, with the help of technology, also be done with the use of surgical splints.
Once the implant is essentially designed, the project can be transferred to the clinical setting using a surgical guide. Surgical guides are computer-designed devices manufactured from acrylic resin by a process called stereolithography. Surgical guides contain steel sleeves of a predetermined diameter to guide the drills during the osteotomy procedure. There are several types of surgical guides, such as a pilot guide, which allows the clinician to create the initial osteotomy. After the pilot osteotomy is created, the guide is removed and the rest of the procedure is done with the free hand.
Other guides allow the completion of all osteotomy procedures using the entire series of drills. However, the implant is placed freehand, while there are others that require a guide to go through the entire sequence of drilling and implant placement. Some protocols include depth control systems that allow the surgeon to control vertical preparation using a stop on the drill or at the levels of the sheath insert.
In addition, surgical guides can be categorized according to the type of fixation they have, such as teeth, bone, or soft tissue (Fig. 20A, B).
Surgical guides for edentulous patients are stabilized via temporary fixation pins that can also be programmed using advanced tools in the software packages (see Fig. 20C).
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Fig. 20 Surgical guides. Examples of odontogenic (A) or osseous (B) design of surgical guides. (C) Mucosal guide with temporary fixation pins.
All these modern techniques of dental implants are provided at our Dental Clinic in Kalamata.
