CEREC Guide: innovative solution for the inhouse fabrication of surgical guides

Sirona, the dental industry's technology leader, is proud to announce the market launch of CEREC Guide.

Dentists and dental technicians now have the option of ordering surgical guides from the Sirona subsidiary SICAT - or they can fabricate these guides on their in-house CAD/CAM systems.¹ Although guided implantation is demonstrably superior to free-hand implantation in terms of safety and precision,² fewer than 10% of implants are placed with the aid of surgical guides. Dentists are wary of high costs and long delivery times and thus deploy surgical guides only in "difficult" cases. CEREC Guide removes these obstacles. This new in-house process is direct, quick and cost-effective and is suitable for all indications.

According to Birgit Moeller, Marketing Manager Dental CAD/CAM Systems at Sirona, "CEREC users are accustomed to initiating the production process immediately after completing the planning phase. This expectation also extends to integrated implantology, a procedure we launched in 2009 under the name CmG ('CEREC meets GALILEOS'). CmG combines the data acquired by the CEREC system and Sirona's CBCT imaging systems as a basis for optimum prosthetic and surgical planning. So far dentists have had to order surgical guides from the Sirona subsidiary SICAT. Following the launch of CEREC Guide they are in a position to fabricate these guides in-house. This is a logical step on the way to a fully digital process chain."

Guided implantation ensures enhanced safety and reliability and delivers convincing clinical and aesthetic results. In many cases it creates the basis for minimally invasive ("flapless") surgery. The procedure is very simple. The dentist heats up a thermoplastic material, places it on the implant site and inserts the reference body. The thermoplastic material is then allowed to harden for approximately five minutes.

The resultant scanning template (stent) is positioned in the patient's mouth. A 3D X-ray is then acquired. The Sirona GALAXIS software merges the CEREC and CBCT data, thus creating the basis for the precise planning of the implant position. The planning data is exported to the CEREC software, which then mills a so-called "drill body", ready for insertion in place of the reference body. The surgical guide is now ready for use. Various drill keys are available for different drill diameters. CEREC Guide is a quick, simple, low-cost and precise procedure tailored to a complete range of indications. Two alternatives are available via SICAT, Sirona's central production service. CLASSICGUIDE is the ideal solution for complex cases involving labproduced stone models. OPTIGUIDE is an industrially produced surgical guide created on the basis of optical impressions acquired on the CEREC system. CEREC Guide is targeted at dentists who want to enhance the safety and reliability of their implantation procedures. In addition, CEREC GUIDE allows dental technicians to offer their customers high-precision surgical guides at low cost and within short delivery deadlines. CEREC Guides can be produced using the classic CAD/CAM process or else via the Sirona Connect workflow.

The system requirements for CEREC Guide are as follows:

• CEREC 4.0.2 software with an Open GALILEOS Implant license
• CEREC MC XL or inLab MC XL milling unit
• GALILEOS or ORTHOPHOS XG 3D system with the implant planning software "GALILEOS Implant V1.9 with SP1"

Drill keys are available for the following systems:

1CEREC Guide will be available to dental technicians via a planned update version of the inLab 4.0 software.
2For example - Stuart J. Froum (Editor) Dental Implant Complications. Etiology, Prevention, and Treatment. Chichester (U.K.) 2010.