Stereolithographic Surgical Guide with a Combination of Tooth and Bone Support: Accuracy of Guided Implant Surgery in Distal Extension Situation

A distal free-end situation could result in insufficient stability of the surgical guide, and could reduce accuracy of the static guided implant surgery (sGIS). The purpose of this study was to investigate the accuracy of sGIS using a combination tooth-and-bone supported stereolithographic (SLA) surgical guide in distal extension situation. Thirty dentists, each placed three implants at the Federal Dentaire Internationale (FDI) teeth positions #46, #47 (a distal extension situation), and #36 (a single tooth gap) via the surgical guide on a model fixed to a manikin. Pre- and post-operative computed tomography (CT) images of the models were superimposed, and the positional and angular deviations of the implants were measured with metrology software. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was performed to evaluate the intergroup differences. No significant differences were found for all the positional and angular deviations among the three implant sites, except the bucco-lingual deviation at the implant platform in the #47 position (0.43 +/- 0.19 mm) that was significantly larger than the #46 (0.21 +/- 0.14 mm) and #36 (0.24 +/- 0.25 mm) positions (p < 0.0001). Within the limits of this study, we conclude that, in distal extension situation of missing mandibular molars, adding a bone-supported strut in the distal part of the surgical guide can be beneficial to the accuracy of the sGIS.