Guided Dental Implant Surgery vs. Freehand Placement
Guided Surgery with Surgical Guide is minimally invasive and uses software permitting virtual simulation before the surgery.
What is Guided Dental Implant Surgery?
Guided Dental Implant Surgery refers to the use of a surgical guide to help with precision placement. The surgical guide is designed with computer software, printed with a 3D printer, and then used during surgery to indicate to the surgeon the exact location and depth of each dental implant.
What are the steps involved in Guided Dental Implant placement?
From the patient’s perspective, the steps for guided surgery are very similar to a regular freehand surgery with the only addition being an additional scan or impression made of the patient’s mouth. This scan serves to give the practitioner an image of the patient’s soft tissues, which is then combined with the 3D CT scan showing the patient’s bone to provide the overall anatomy of the patient’s jaw.
This complete picture allows the surgery to be planned and carried out virtually by means of computer software. The surgical guide is then 3D printed based on the planned surgical parameters. The surgical guide will be placed in the patient’s mouth during surgery to indicate the exact placement of the implants to the surgeon.

Smiles Peru Design Center for Surgical Guides
Is Guided Dental Implant Placement necessary in each case?
Freehand dental implant placement without surgical guides has generally had high levels of success throughout the dental profession over the years. Thus, while a skilled surgeon may have a high level of success with freehand technique, guided surgery can be seen as the next step in the evolution to create increased predictability and precise results.
The use of surgical guides typically is seen as providing more benefits in cases of multiple adjacent implants, where paralleling the implants using freehand technique may be more difficult. In patient’s where bone loss is present or bone grafting is necessary, surgical guides can help achieve the necessary precision to place the dental implants in the exact best location as planned for during the virtual planning phase.
Though a skilled surgeon may have a high level of success with the freehand technique, guided surgery can be seen as the next step in the evolution to create increased predictability and precise results.
Surgical Guide Design with 3D Software for Guided Dental Implant Placement
What are the benefits of Guided Dental Implant Surgery?
The chief benefit of guided surgery is increased precision and surgical predictability, as well as reduced surgical time due to the extensive planning required beforehand. The only cons are the increased cost and time of fabricating the surgical guides. Smiles Peru has 3D imaging and 3D printing of surgical guides on-site, enabling our dental clinic to fabricate surgical guides in minimum time and low cost to the patient.