CAD/CAM Milling versus Rapid Prototyping Surgical Guide Techniques in Dental Implant Placement

This study was done to compare between the accuracy of surgical guides in implant placement using different techniques of construction; CAD/CAM milling and Rapid Prototyping (3D printing). 28 implants divided equally into two groups, group I implant inserted using CAD/CAM milling surgical guides while group II implant inserted using 3D printed (Rapid Prototyping) surgical guides. A pre-operative CBCT was taken to determine the virtual implant location regarding Coronal, apical and angular positions, after implant placement, a postoperative CBCT was taken and the Blue sky plan computer software was used to match the pre and postoperative CBCT images, to compare Angular, coronal, and apical deviation of the virtual and the actual implants positions by Superimposition with the post-operative CBCT. There were a statistically significant higher coronal, apical and angular deviation mean values between the virtual and the actual implants placement of group II than of group I. The CAD/CAM milled surgical guides had superior results than 3D printing surgical guides. Keywords: CAD/CAM, 3Dprinting, surgical guides.