Convergence News Network reporter Li Shengwen/Reporting from Taipei

Missing teeth but worried about unsuccessful dental implants? Relying on the doctor's skillful hands alone is not enough. Domestic doctors have observed that the main reason for the failure of traditional dental implants is often to rely solely on the doctor's experience and touch. As long as you encounter patients with many missing teeth, problems such as the position of the dental implants and the position of the dentures may not match during the operation. However, most dentistry has entered a new era of digitalization. Digital technology, like GPS, can accurately find the location of dental implants in the missing tooth areas.

With the problem of missing teeth among Chinese people, dental implant surgery is the first choice for more and more patients. However, dental implant surgery is an invasive treatment and is not foolproof.

Zhou Huanjue, a prosthetic specialist at Modern Dentistry, said that in the past, traditional dental implants relied almost entirely on the experience and touch of the doctor. If a mistake was made, the position of the dental implants and the dentures could easily be inconsistent, or the angles were wrong. It was even possible to accidentally injure the sinuses and nerves during the dental implant surgery, increasing the risk of dental implants for the patient.

Now with 3D computed tomography and digital guides as assistants, Zhou Huanjue said that not only can the tissues around the teeth be viewed, but the digital imaging equipment can also further simulate the future dental implant position and simulate the repair effect. The dental implant surgery can be completed in a short time, reducing postoperative infection problems and improving the success rate of dental implants, allowing the teeth to regain their former function and appearance. In addition, the benefits of digital technology can effectively reduce the operation time and reduce the scope of the wound, thereby reducing postoperative pain and infection, avoiding human estimation errors, and improving the safety of dental implants.

▲For incisor reconstruction, a digital guide is used to determine the position of the implant, assisting the surgeon in accurately placing the implant.

Zhou Huanjue gave the digital guide as an example. It combines computerized tomography and dental models. Computer dental implant planning software can be used to find the location of dental implants and simulate the best position and size of future implants. Then a surgical guide is produced through 3D printing and placed in the patient's mouth. It can assist the doctor to accurately implant the artificial tooth root at the pre-planned position and depth to complete the dental implant surgery.

The innovation of medical equipment does not end there. Zhou Huanjue said that through dental digitization, including oral digital scanning machines, high-speed scanning and photography can be used to clearly display the current condition of the teeth in the mouth as a 3D three-dimensional image, replacing the traditional impression method, reducing the patient's discomfort during the impression, reducing the time-consuming and labor-intensive procedures in the past, effectively reducing the error rate, and assisting the dentist in subsequent denture production.