Dynamic navigation and technical improvements in zygomatic surgery

Abstract

The rehabilitation of the severely atrophied edentulous maxilla poses a great challenge to surgeons and prosthodontics that work on this particular area. The classic approach implies bone augmentation techniques by means of bone grafting, bone distraction techniques, tilted and short implants. All of these require major surgery, sometimes associated with morbidity at donor and receptor sites and functional rehabilitation of the patient must occur in two surgical stages. Since the development of the zygomatic implants by Per-Ingvar Branemark, there’s an alternative to bone grafting techniques, using the body of the zygomatic bone as major point of anchorage to an intraoral osteointegrated implant. This procedure allows the patient to regain orofacial function in only one surgical stage, with high predictability, less morbidity, time spend and costs. In this scientific article the authors present a set of technical improvements in the zygomatic implant (S.I.N. - Implant System, São Paulo, Brazil) in combination with a new dynamic navigation system called StealthStation™ (Medtronic, Dublin, Irland) used for the first time in this type of surgery.