What is guided surgery?
It is a treatment by which we can place dental implants in a precise way to our patients. This technique can be performed thanks to the individualized preparation of a surgical template perfectly adjusted to the anatomy of each of our patients. This template has some perforations, some guides, which will help us during the drilling protocol and when placing the implants in a three-dimensional position in the bone of our patient. This template will be made thanks to aesthetic, phonetic and functional tests individualized for each patient that will give us the correct position in which our patient should take those teeth. Once we have all this individualized information we will make a radiological template with which the patient will go for a scan. Once it is done, we will obtain this data in a digital format and we will be able to introduce them in a planning software where we will obtain a real and three-dimensional scale model, and our radiological template, which will be your future teeth. All this is linked by the software and we will be able to place our implants guided by the prosthesis that we have previously designed. Once we have placed the implants in the correct position, inside the bone and guided by the prosthesis, we will send to Sweden to make this surgical template with which we will intervene our patients. This template will also help us to make a working model on which we will make either provisional or definitive teeth that we will be able to place in our patients the same day we perform the surgery, so that the patient goes home that same day with teeth that are placed at the same time we perform the surgery.
What are the main treatments or interventions that can be carried out with this technique?
The most important is the precise and painless placement of dental implants. In addition to this, we can make a correct diagnosis since we will have volumetric and real scale images of our patient’s anatomy which will help us to make a correct treatment plan since we will be able to observe the individualized anatomical characteristics of our patients and make surgical decisions before the intervention without the stress that this would entail during the surgical act. In addition, with these images obtained with our software we will have a much more fluid communication with the patients who will be informed, from the first moment they contact us, of how they are going to be treated.
What advantages does guided surgery have over conventional surgery?
The most important one is the precision when it comes to placing the implants. Regardless of this characteristic, we are able to treat a greater number of patients, patients who either because of the complexity of the case, or because of the lack of bone, or because of the fear they have of the treatment, previously did not decide to undergo surgery and now thanks to this technique with images that they themselves can see, they see it much easier and accept the treatment. For the patient himself, obviously, this technique will help him to have almost no pain and inflammation because we use minimally invasive techniques and this will help him to easily return to work and social life. And finally, the possibility for patients to obtain either provisional or definitive teeth the same day they are operated on.