Optics‑guided Robotic System for Dental Implant Surgery

At present,dental implant surgery mainly relies on the clinical experience of the doctor and the assistance of preoperative medical imaging.However,there are some problems in dental implant surgery,such as narrow space,sight obstruction,inaccurate positioning,and high requirements of doctors’proficiency.Therefore,a dental implant robot system(DIRS)guided by optical navigation is developed in this study,with an x-shaped tool and an irregular pentagonal tracer are designed for spatial registration and needle tip positioning strategy respectively.The coordinate system of each unit in DIRS is unified through system calibration,spatial registration,and needle tip positioning strategy.Then the surgical path is planned on the computed tomography(CT)images in the navigation software before operation.The automatic positioning method and the auxiliary positioning method can be used in the operation to achieve accurate positioning and assist doctors to complete the operation.The errors of spatial registration,needle tip positioning strategy,and the overall accuracy of the system were evaluated respectively,and the results showed that they all met the needs of clinical surgery.This study preliminarily verified the feasibility of the precise positioning method for dental surgery robots and provided certain ideas for subsequent related research.

Advance in Functional Restoration of Injured Nerve with Low Level Laser and its Utilization in the Dental and Maxillofacial Region

The inferior alveolar nerve and facial nerve are the two most important nerves in the dental and maxillofacial region.The injury to them is one of the major postoperative complications after alveolar surgery and orthognathic surgery.However,recovering the nerve function after injury takes a long time and the recovery effect tends to be unsatisfactory.In recent years,an intensively investigated technique,low level laser which has been applying in assisting the recovery of nerve function,has been gradually proved to be effective in clinically treating postoperative nerve injury.In this article we review in terms of the mechanisms involved in low level laser-assisted functional restoration of nerve injury and its clinical application in the recovery of nerve function in the dental and maxillofacial area as well.

Simultaneous Upper and Lower Jaw Extractions, Autogenous Bone Augmentation and Temporary Implant Placement with Immediate Loading

Aims: We expanded the known technique for simultaneously augmenting an atrophic maxilla and placement of immediate provisional implants (IPI), followed by immediate loading by performing surgery in both jaws simultaneously. Feasibility of this new technique, implant survival and success were evaluated as well as prosthetic success. Materials and Methods: All patients undergoing simultaneous bone grafting and IPI placement with immediate loading at our institute between the 1st of June 2016 and the 30th of May 2018 were included and followed up for at least one year postoperatively. Results: 3 patients were followed for a mean period of 25.67 months (20 - 29 months). 33 IPIs were placed. All were immobile at second stage surgery without signs of infection. No provisional bridges were lost and no infections were noted. After second stage surgery, none of these 36 final dental implants were lost. There was some bone loss at one implant. In all patients, good functional and aesthetic results were obtained without any unforeseen complications. This renders the implant survival at 100% and the success rate at 97%. Conclusion: The technique is complex due to the intricate step-by-step process that is required and depends on a dedicated team to ensure a proper workflow. When performed correctly, the protocol shows good and predictable results.