Guided surgery and presurgical prosthesis: preliminary results of 33 fully edentulous maxillae treated in accordance with the NobelGuide protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to present the preliminary results of 33 edentulous maxillary patients treated using the Nobelguide (Nobel Biocare AB, Göteborg, Sweden) technique.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-three patients were treated according to the conventional protocol of the Nobelguide technique in two clinical centers. This group of patients received 211 implants. Monitoring was carried out for over 12-51 months, depending on the patient. The Nobelguide protocol was used for all patients.
RESULTS: Of the 211 implants loaded, four were lost (1.9%). The implant survival rate was therefore 98.1%. The prosthetic survival rate was 100%. There were some per-operative complications (four) and some postoperative complications (10 fractures of resin).
CONCLUSION: These preliminary results seemed rather promising. These were the first cases of experienced surgeons who needed to learn a new implant placement protocol. It was clear that analysis and understanding of the system were essential in order to obtain such a success. Only one implant was replaced without there being any impact on the prosthesis survival rate which is 100%.