A new surgical template with a handpiece positioner for use during flapless placement of four dental implants to retain a mandibular overdenture.

This article describes the fabrication of a new and inexpensive surgical template from a radiographic template for flapless placement of dental implants to retain a mandibular overdenture. A radiographic template with radiopaque metal plate markers is constructed and used as a guide for achieving three-dimensional evaluation of bone using computed tomography (CT). The potential position and angulation of the implants are measured relative to the metal plates using the CT data. The radiographic template is converted into a surgical template by attaching rigid metal rods that guide the handpiece precisely during subsequent drilling procedures.