Current state of the art of computer‐guided implant surgery

The invention of computerized axial tomography (now known as computerized tomography) and developments of interactive software to allow virtual planning, with the aim to guide the surgery precisely toward a specific target, has dramatically improved general, as well as oral, surgery. Virtual dental implant planning allows for a prosthetically driven approach, resulting in the best possible design of the prosthesis, better esthetics, optimized occlusion and loading. This approach has also changed the surgical paradigm of using extensive flaps to obtain a proper view of the surgical area because flapless implant surgery, with or without immediate loading, has become more predictable. Two types of guided implant…