Dental Implants

What Is Image-Guided Surgery?

We use image-guided or computer-guided surgery to plan and place dental implants precisely, ensuring we insert your implants into exactly the right location at the correct angulation and depth. With this treatment, we can optimise the use of available bone while avoiding essential structures in your jawbone, such as nerves. The implant is then left alone to heal and integrate into the jaw bone, this normally takes around 3-4 months. Once the bone has grown and healed around the implant, a custom-made crown is then designed and fitted onto the implant to restore function and aesthetics to the smile.

When you visit us for dental implants, we will need to take a cone-beam CT scan of your mouth. A cone-beam CT scan produces 3-D images of your mouth, including your jaws and any existing teeth. The actual scan is quick and non-invasive as the scanner travels around you in a matter of seconds. A cone-beam CT scan is also very safe, emitting only low levels of radiation and provides us with far more information than a 2-D digital x-ray.

Our dentist can manipulate these digital images, viewing them from any angle so we can see the amount of bone available for dental implants and where best to place them. Our dentist will plan each implant placement, making sure that once your implants are restored with your crown, bridge or denture, that the restorations look and feel natural, and most importantly that they function properly.

We carry out this planning process entirely behind-the-scenes so that when you come to have your implant surgery, the actual procedure is shorter and quicker. Because we know exactly where to locate each implant, placement is faster, and there is less risk of complications. The overall procedure should feel more comfortable, and healing is quicker with fewer side-effects such as swelling.