For computer-guided surgery a static surgical guide is used that transfers the virtual implant position from computerized tomographic data to the surgical site. These guides are produced by computer-aided design/computer-assisted manufacture technology, such as stereolithography, or manually in a dental laboratory (using mechanical positioning devices or drilling machines). With computer-navigated surgery the position of the instruments in the surgical area is constantly displayed on a screen with a three-dimensional image of the patient. In this way, the system allows real-time transfer of the preoperative planning and visual feedback on the screen. A workflow of the different systems is presented in this review.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.