Israel is going through a very intense period recently: elections, strikes, Hamsin, Corona, more elections, but we were not surprised or impressed by this – this is because these are things we are already familiar with. We live longer and enjoy a life expectancy that continues to increase all the time, but as age increases, so does the number of people suffering from tooth loss – the biggest threat to oral health, and later on to overall health. As part of the dental treatments that preserve and restore, there are currently ways to restore the lost teeth, among other things through dental implants that anchor the tooth restorations that are topped by crowns, bridges or dentures.

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A new technology in Smile General allows the dentists to be precise in the dental implant process and to avoid risks and complications, and it gives patients confidence and good results. Until the introduction of the software that guides the implantation, a doctor or dentist had to place the implant manually – a way in which the risk of deviation from the desired range or damage to central nerves or sinuses.

With computerized implantation, it is possible to create a personalized treatment plan in which the location of the implants, their width, their length, and the exact insertion angle are defined ahead of time, before the surgical procedure. In the world of computer-guided transplants, doctors can offer two methods of operation: static (using a medical brace) or dynamic (with the help of a robot).

The treatment consists of three main stages:

first step: Accurate diagnosis. For a patient who is required to have a dental implant, a scan and imaging of the dentition must be performed before the treatments begin. It is usually a CT scan (CBCT) or various imaging scans. It is possible that as a preliminary step to the treatment, the patients will be asked to undergo dental treatment for teeth cleaning and stone removal. In any case, and even more so in the case of tooth loss, good oral hygiene must be observed, treat and prevent tooth decay or gum disease that will lead to the loss of additional teeth.

second level: Planning the transplant. Before even getting to the surgery itself, the treating doctor must carefully plan the location of the implant, its type and its size. For this purpose, the doctors use 3D software that knows how to give an image of the tooth before and after the treatment. The computerized planning increases the level of precision in inserting the implant, reduces the risk of damage to the soft tissues and blood vessels in the area and shortens the time of implantation.

third phase: The transplant. Doctors have the option of choosing to perform a static implant using a medical splint made of silicone that is prepared in advance according to the imaging of the patient’s mouth. The splint is mounted on the patient’s jaw and defines for the doctor exactly where to drill and where to place the implant – at the exact angle and position.

Another option is to perform a computer-assisted dynamic implant. In such a case, we use a 3D camera that accompanies the implantation process and relies on the imaging data of the patient’s mouth to guide the doctor to the final implant location, the necessary depth and the exact angle. The advantage of this method is that in a computerized transplant there is no need to make an incision and the procedure itself only takes a few minutes, and if all this is not enough, without the incision the recovery process is also much faster and easier. Moreover, the implantation is exact according to the preliminary design with a maximum deviation of 3 tenths of a millimeter.

Dr. Nirit Tager Green is a specialist in gum disease (periodontics) at Smile