What is a Surgical Guide for Dental Implants?

Surgical guides: What are they?

Dental implant surgical guides are an instrument that helps a dental surgeon fit an implant right into the place where it needs to go. These guides are made using digital, imaging software that uses intraoral scan impressions of the site for reference.

These impressions are a tailor-made, custom reproduction of the area where the implant needs to be installed. The dentist needs to make the surgical guide right to the specific dimensions of your mouth to set the implant correctly.

Surgical guides are a great benefit for this procedure, as it reduces the margin of error and the total time that it might take for a dentist to install the implant. Also, the impressions let the dentist decide what the type of implant that best suits your whole situation is.

Dental surgical guides look like a plastic, crystal-clear retainer; they’re placed in a patient’s mouth for the surgeon to find the exact location of where the dental implant needs to go.

Some types of guides are supported on the teeth, while some others are supported by being positioned on the gums/soft tissue. Other types also exist, such as bone-supported guides, which are positioned on the jawbone.

Some other factors that play a big role in how the implant treatment will go include what the needs of the patient are, how many implants the patient requires, the type of surgical guide that is needed, etc.

What are the benefits of surgical guides?

Surgical guides are a response to many of the difficulties and problems that conventional dental implant surgical practices come with.

Some of the benefits that these methods include are:

What are the types of dental guides?

• Tooth-supported surgical guide: Commonly used for single implant placement. They’re easily adaptable to different clinical situations.
• Tissue-supported surgical guide: Commonly fabricated based on a prosthesis. Its support and stability are based on soft tissue.
• Tooth-tissue-supported surgical guide: Provides a guide for the clip-in drill. This type of guide is used for bone reduction.
• Bone-supported surgical guide: Generally used for full-arch edentulous implant cases.
• Pilot guide: It ensures that your initial drill gets the angle, direction, and depth right.
• SAFE guide: Suitable for when full implant guidance is needed. These guides use a specific brand surgical kit.

Your dentist will pick the option that best suits your situation.

How are surgical guides made?

A surgical guide is made by performing an intraoral scan using CAD/CAM technology. This CAD/CAM technology allows dentists to create a digital image of both the tooth and the area in which the surgical guide will be supported on.

CAD/CAM stands for Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing. It’s commonly used to create tools used for precise procedures. It was adopted by the dental industry in 1985.

Creating a faithful digital image of the patient is vital for the procedure’s success; it makes it easier for the dentist to create an accurate reproduction of the patient’s oral areas, thus making it simpler to pick the best type of dental implant to be used.

Before, During, and After Surgery

Before surgery, the surgical guide should properly be taken care of. The surgical guide should be properly sterilized. No mechanical forces should affect the surgical guide during the sterilization process.

If a tooth-supported or mucosa-supported surgical guide is being used, the soft tissue may be removed before or after the positioning of the guide has been done. This choice will depend on the dentist and what the dimensions of his tools are.

If the dentist is using bone-supported or mucosa-supported surgical guides, then he/she can fixate it by using security screws for it to remain in place while the procedure is being done.

The surgical guide’s manufacturer’s specifications will tell the dentist how to place the implants. If multiple implants are being placed in that same session, some mechanical considerations might determine which implants should be inserted first.

If it’s appropriate to do so, the implants will be immediately installed. If it’s possible, a temporary restoration can be made and delivered before the surgery, allowing the patient to leave with a fabricated replica.

It is important to note that, as it was stated before, the dentist will choose what the best option of surgical guides to use is, depending on what he/she has to do. Using the correct surgical guide ensures the patient’s satisfaction, as it makes the success rate of these increase.

Where can I get a dental implant?

Dental implants are a pretty common procedure in dentistry; it’s normal to be missing a tooth by the time that you get to your 50s or 60s, you might end up breaking one just by eating hard food, or maybe one of your teeth has decayed because of poor hygiene habits.

Either way, dental implants include a dental extraction, a practice that dentists resort to if it’s a tooth finds itself in a state that is beyond salvation. If you’d like to read more about tooth extractions and why they might be necessary, please visit our blog article about extractions by clicking here.

Once the tooth is extracted, the dentist will evaluate the state of the tooth socket and if there’s enough bone for him/her to install an implant. If not, he or she might resort to bone graft, a process used to generate bone that is stable enough to take the installation of an implant.

If you’d like to read more about bone graft, its benefits, and why it is used, please click here.

If you want to get a replacement for your tooth, you should consider getting dental implants in Mexico.  Lots of people from all around the world are trying medical tourism in Mexico because of the up-to-far procedures you can get there at affordable prices.

In Los Algodones, dental implants are a reality thanks to Sani Dental Group. Sani Dental Group has the latest technology for the fabrication of dental implants surgical guides.

If you’d like to book an appointment with us, call (928) 257-1307 or request to make one.