Dental Patient Benefits of Image-guided Implant Surgery

Image guided surgery makes use of the very latest technology to help ensure that your dental implant treatment is a complete success. When you visit Dr. Lawrence Falender at Indianapolis Oral Surgery & Dental Implant Center for your initial consultation, it’s highly likely that he will want to take some diagnostic images. These will include dental x-rays and if you decide to proceed with implant surgery then you will need what’s called a cone beam CT scan. This is a detailed 3-D image of your mouth showing all of its structures and it is essential for implant planning. Dental implant treatment isn’t simply a matter of inserting a dental implant into the jawbone as the surgery has to be precisely planned and this is where 3-D imaging is so invaluable.

What is Image Guided Surgery?

Indianapolis Oral Surgery & Dental Implant Center is one of the first practice in Indianapolis to use imaged guided technology for dental implant surgery. This revolutionary technology provides real-time, turn-by-turn guidance for less invasive surgery and more accurate placement of dental implants. It is the newest and most advanced system used for placement of dental implants.

It is today’s most advanced method of placing dental implants, one that uses a combination of state-of-the-art medical/dental technology and cutting edge surgical techniques to provide Indianapolis, IN dental patients with exceptional implant-based dental restoration results. Here we’ll delve into the details of image guided dental implant procedures, including how they differ from standard implant procedures and their benefits for the average dental patient.

Image guided surgery starts with 3-D Imaging. Visualizing your jaw in three dimensions allows us to identify the relationship between important anatomical structures and nearly eliminates the uncertainty that is often encountered with traditional 2-D imaging. Virtual surgical planning software is then used to create a 3-dimensional digital treatment plan that is reviewed with your dentist and used to show you what you can expect everything will look like from start-to-finish. This allows you to see the images in an understandable way so that you can make educated decisions about your treatment plan.

Benefits of Image-Guided Implant Surgery

Image-Guided Dental Implant Surgery Provides Greater Accuracy

The mouth is full of important structures that your oral surgeon has to be mindful of them when installing a dental implant. You wouldn’t want your dentist to hit a nerve, and you wouldn’t want the titanium post of your dental implant to come in contact with the root of the adjacent tooth. Nor do you want your implanted tooth to be crooked or off-center.

Image-guided surgery allows your oral surgeon to operate with a high degree of accuracy because the 3D images provide a detailed view of each part of your mouth. Furthermore, mapping the surgical process ahead of time, with the images as a guide, reduces the risk of mistakes at the time of surgery. Image-guided surgery provides more accuracy than other forms of implant surgery.

Image-Guided Dental Implant Surgery is Less Invasive

The higher degree of accuracy provided by image-guided surgery is what allows it to be a less invasive procedure than other types of dental implant surgery. Thanks to the detailed images of your mouth and the careful planning of your surgery before the actual operation, your dentist can install your implant with only a small incision, or even with no incisions at all.

When using a freehand technique, dentists have to plan their incisions and other surgical movements as they’re performing the surgery, which could lead to larger or more incisions, especially if the dentist is placing multiple implants. In the image-guided surgery process, all of that planning is done before the surgery with accurate models of your mouth, which allows your dentist the time and resources to determine the least invasive way to install your dental implants. The less invasive the surgery is, the less risk you have of complications.

It’s Easier to Recover from Image-Guided Dental Implant Surgery

The greater degree of accuracy and the lesser degree of invasiveness combine to make image-guided dental implant surgery easier to recover from than other dental implant surgeries.

Because your oral surgeon can ensure accurate placement and smaller incisions, you’ll have less bruising and swelling and less pain than you would if your dentist used a freehand technique. Fewer and smaller incisions also mean less chance of infection after the surgery. Because post-surgical infections can lead to implant failure, reducing your risk of infections increases the likelihood that your implants will be successful.

Your recovery will not only be easier; it will be faster. You’ll be ready to flash your new and improved smile sooner rather than later.

What Is a Surgical Guide and When Is It Used?

Our implant dentist Dr. Falender may well choose to make what is called a surgical guide which is a template that will be made based on the information provided by 3-D imaging technology. The template shows Dr. Falender the precise positions to insert the dental implants during image guided surgery and helps ensure that the whole procedure will proceed as smoothly as possible. This is also an advantage for you, as the surgical procedure will be quicker and less invasive as Dr. Falender will know precisely where to make any incisions, and smaller incisions will be quicker to heal with less risk of infection or any other type of complication.

How You Get the Very Best Dental Treatment in Indianapolis IN

Not every implant dentist offers this type of advanced technology but it is worth seeking out someone who does if you want to receive the best and most comfortable treatment that will give you a higher degree of success. As well as making for a more comfortable procedure, image guided surgery helps to ensure that the final results will look wonderful. By placing the dental implant in precisely the right position, you can be sure of having an implant tooth that will be able to function properly so it will feel just like your natural tooth. It should also look stunning as the final aesthetics would have been taken into account when planning your treatment.

Dental implant surgery is not a quick procedure and it is not the cheapest way to replace a missing tooth but the advantages far outweigh these factors. However, to maximize your chances of successful treatment, it pays to choose an implant dentist with this advanced technology and who has extensive training and experience in placing all sorts of dental implants. In other words, you do need a specialist such as Dr. Lawrence Falender.

So, the bottom line answer to the question “What is image guided dental implant surgery?” is that it is the safest, most accurate method available today to place dental implants, providing patients with top-of-the-line care when it comes to implant-based dental restorations. Given that fact, it just makes sense to choose an Indianapolis specialist Dr. Falender for your procedure who has invested in this state-of-the-art technology, ensuring that you’ll get the optimal results you’re looking for as you invest your time and money into restoring your smile with dental implants.