Author(s)

Abdul Aziz Al Sawai¹, C. S. Rajmohan^2*, Hussein Labib³, Said Tabiuk¹

¹Ministry of Health, Muscat, The Sultanate of Oman.
²Department of Adult Restorative Dentistry, Oman Dental College, Muscat, The Sultanate of Oman.
³Consultant Dental Implantologist, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Background: Advancing surgical reconstructive methods and demanding prosthetics need accurate and precise implant placements. Positioning dental implant is vital in both prosthetic and aesthetic perspectives. The optimal three-dimensional placement not only reduces biomechanical complications but also imprecates the odds of implant failure. Materials & Methods: By using robust text mining, searching and retrieval tools, 350 relevant articles were found and then out of them 161 articles were short listed for our review. They included systematic reviews, meta-analyses, case series and experimental studies. Conclusions & Results: Conventional freehand implant placement techniques remain experts’ favorite for uncompromised cases. However, for compromised cases that demand accuracy and predictability, various computer-based methods are in use. While computerized tomography techniques and use of interactive software prevalent in treatment planning, computer-aided design or computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/ CAM) fabricated surgical guides enable implantologists for more successful implantations.

Implant Positioning, Treatment Planning, Implant Surgery, Computer-Guided Implant Placement

Sawai, A. , Rajmohan, C. , Labib, H. and Tabiuk, S. (2017) Advances in Dental Implant Positioning Techniques and Their Clinical Implications. Open Journal of Stomatology, 7, 121-135. doi: 10.4236/ojst.2017.72008.