Rehabilitation of an atrophic maxilla using 3D implant planning

Andoni Jones discusses the implant treatment of an edentulous patient using 3D implant planning to avoid complex grafting procedures.

The rehabilitation of a patient with atrophic jaws can be challenging for the dental team. Costs, healing periods, morbidity and complications can also be elevated for the patient. However, cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and 3D implant planning software allow us to treat these patients in a less invasive and a more predictable way.

Traditionally, treatment of patients with atrophic jaws requiring implant therapy involved complex grafting procedures and extended healing periods. Many patients rejected these treatment modalities due to their high complication and morbidity rates and costs. Nowadays, we are able to treat many of these patients in a much quicker, less invasive and safer way by using 3D technology to place our implants in a safer way.

Going digital

Since computer guided implant surgery was first introduced in 2002, digital technology has evolved into a very accurate tool. Inaccuracies in implant placement are considerably reduced, benefitting to a great extent those patients with atrophic jaws, in whom a very precise use of that limited bone for implant therapy is paramount.

This article will discuss this approach and present a case report of a 56-year-old woman with an edentulous maxilla who wished to get a fixed restoration. The lack of teeth and use of a complete denture for 25 years had resulted in a considerable bone resorption.

She was treated using 3D planning and a surgical guide to place five implants that allowed us to transform her complete denture into an immediate fixed temporary restoration, and three months later she was restored with a permanent metal-ceramic fixed restoration.

Introduction

The treatment of edentulous patients with dental implants has proved to be highly successful, and a paradigm shift in the management…