Introduction: The stent is defined as an appliance used for the evaluation of the height and width of the available bone that can be used in the surgical field to provide an optimum site for the implant. The stent should be transparent, stable, and rigid. For stabilization, the stent should cover enough teeth, and when there are no teeth it should extend to unreflected tissue.
Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of surgical stents to simplify implant placement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Methods: This retrospective radiological study was done by selecting implant cases placed in Saudi Arabia. All the implant cases in the study were placed by using a conventional stent. A total of 87 implants cases were selected randomly. The inclusion criteria were: Presence of panoramic radiograph, no bone defect, dentulous patients, using conventional surgical stents, and treatments in Saudi Arabia. The sample size was 87 cases collected from March 2020 to December 2020.
Results: A total of 87 implants were examined through the radiograph, 49 (56.32%) implants were in the mandible and 38 (43.68%) were in the maxilla. Regarding the position of the implant, most of the implants 64 (73.56%) were successfully placed within the standard range (minimum 1.5mm between the implant and the tooth, 3.5mm between implants and implants). The analysis shows that 14 (16.09%) implants were less than the standard range, 7 (8.04%) in the maxilla, and 2 (2.29%) in the mandible.
Conclusion: The study shows the high accuracy in implant placement using a conventional surgical stent. Besides, the study indicates its advantage of being easier and cheaper comparing to another technique although it can provide similar success if done correctly and precisely.
