Guided Dental Implant Placement
In our office we have an ICAT – this is a 3D CT Scanner that scans the head and jaws. It gives us an exact 3-D model of your jaws. It is also the same technology as a Cat Scan you get in the hospital. With this information, we can directly plan your implant case at your consultation. A surgical guide is also planned on the computer that takes your planned dental implant surgery converts it to a hard model (guide) that can be placed on the gums and allows precise placement of dental implants into the jaws.
Benefits:
- Many cases are Flapless – ie no incision. Think of a laparoscopic surgery vs large open incision.
- Can reduce operator error by replicating and transporting a planned dental implant position on a computer to the operating room
- Faster surgery – many times a guide can take a 1 hour surgery to be as quick as 15 minutes.
Limitations:
- If you have a very small mouth and cant open wide a guided surgery can be impossible
- If teeth are to be extracted. If an entire arch of teeth are to be removed, there is no definitive rest to anchor the guide to. These cases with tooth extraction and implant placement are done open (with a flap) to provide direct visualization and proper bone management.
What are the steps: 
- You will always need an initial consultation to determine your treatment
- A CT scanning model will be created by our lab, and you will see us back for a CT scan with the scanning model in the mouth.
- Once scanned, we will construct the surgical guide and after a week or so we can schedule your guided dental implant procedure.