[The application of dental stents in implant therapy]

The improperiety of the location of implants would cause many difficulties to prosthetic procedure. The function, appearance and long-term health of implant denture would then be effected. Dental stents were used to resolve the above problems for 30 cases of implant denture involved 74 implants in present study. A radiographic stent with given diameter sphere can be used to eliminate distortion and determine the bone quantity. A surgical stent can express the prosthetic plan to surgeons during operation directly in the mouths of patients. It is very helpful to the surgeons to take account of both the condition of jaw bone and the future denture making. Holes, tunnels and windows on surgical stents can be used as the guidances of drilling positions and directions. The surgical stents may also be a useful reference to surgeons to make bone graft, do some changes in surgical plan and even cancel the implant denture therapy when the situation of jaw bone significantly differ from what the expectancy.