The impact of the fabrication method on the three-dimensional accuracy of an implant surgery template

Summary Purpose The use of a surgical template is a well-established method in advanced implantology. In addition to conventional fabrication, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) work-flow provides an opportunity to engineer implant drilling templates via a three-dimensional printer. In order to transfer the virtual planning to the oral situation, a highly accurate surgical guide is needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the fabrication method on the three-dimensional accuracy. Materials and Methods The same virtual planning based on a scanned plaster model was used to fabricate a conventional thermo-formed and a three-dimensional printed surgical guide for each of 13 patients (single tooth implants). Both templates were acquired individually on the respective plaster model using an optical industrial white-light scanner (ATOS II, GOM mbh, Braunschweig, Germany), and the virtual datasets were superimposed. Using the three-dimensional geometry of the implant sleeve, the deviation between both surgical guides was evaluated. Results The mean discrepancy of the angle was 3.479° (standard deviation, 1.904°) based on data from 13 patients. Concerning the three-dimensional position of the implant sleeve, the highest deviation was in the Z-axis at 0.594 mm. The mean deviation of the Euclidian distance, dxyz, was 0.864 mm. Conclusion Although the two different fabrication methods delivered statistically significantly different templates, the deviations ranged within a decimillimeter span. Both methods are appropriate for clinical use.