The Benefits of Using Surgical Guides for Implant Surgery

Neil Herzog • May 23, 2023

At Implant Center of Miami, we strive to provide our patients with the most comfortable and seamless dental implant process possible. Our experts use surgical guides to assist us with implant placement, ensuring that your experience is enjoyable and that your resulting smile is flawless. Read on to discover how the use of dental implant surgical guides sets up both our patients and our implantologists for success. 

What Is a Dental Implant Surgical Guide? 

Surgical guides are essentially pieces of plastic with holes strategically spaced in them to guide the placement of dental implants. Unless a patient needs a very simple, single implant and has an extremely healthy amount of bone, a surgical guide is typically used. If a patient needs two implants in front of each other, next to each other, or an implant in the front of the mouth where it’s important to get the implant perfectly centered in the bone, a surgical guide can be a huge help. Perfect placement translates into an aesthetically-pleasing, comfortable crown later on.

How Are Surgical Guides Made?

To begin, the implant surgical guide process starts when we take a digital scan of the inside of the mouth and a CT scan of the bone. We lay the intraoral scan over the CT scan, and we produce a digital wax-up, which is a model of where we want the teeth to end up later. We then use the digital wax-up as a guide to showcase where we want the implant to be placed inside the bone above it. The digital scan and the CT scan are both used so that the angles and the positions of these holes are perfectly centered in the bone and perfectly centered in the middle of the crown. 

Benefits of Dental Implant Surgical Guides

An advantage of using implant surgical guides for the patient, aside from having really beautiful-looking crowns later on, is that they minimize trauma during the surgery. It also quickens the surgery so the patient is pleasantly surprised at how fast the process is completed.  Many times, our implantologists are able to avoid making a cut in the gum, and go straight through the gum, through the surgical guide holes, and the patient virtually has no pain after the surgery. Although patients can typically expect some soreness the next day, when there is no  cutting and no suturing, the pain after surgery is minimal. The surgical guide truly changes the game for patients and professionals, making the process smoother for everyone involved.

How Surgical Guides Assist Implantologists

The surgical guide shows our implant professionals precisely where we want the implants placed and how they will go into the bone. It tells us exactly where the implants will end up in the bone from different angles, and the implant sizes that we need to prepare in advance to make sure they are ready for placement. The guides make the whole process extremely easy for our professionals, seamless for the patient, and produce an amazing result in the end. 

Schedule Your Dental Implant Consultation Today

Every day, we see how fully restored, beautiful smiles change lives. If you’re interested in restoring your smile and think dental implants may be the right solution for you, the dental professionals at Implant Center of Miami can help. Schedule your consultation today to learn more about whether you should opt for dental implants, and about the technology we use to provide our patients with an amazing smile restoration experience.

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