Objective: To investigate variation in the pre-surgical treatment planning after using conventional spiral tomography in addition to conventional radiographic exams.
Material and methods: Twenty-nine partial or fully edentulous patients referred to implant therapy were selected and submitted to periapical, panoramic and conventional cross-sectional tomography exams. Pre-surgical treatment planning of 120 potential implant sites in 69 edentulous areas was performed by two independent experienced dental implant surgeons. After clinical examination, pre-surgical planning was made using only periapical and panoramic exams. Examiners were requested to reformulated initial planning after assessing tomographic images. Four treatment parameters were evaluated: length and width of implants, need of bone grafting and need of other surgical procedures.
Results: Implant length and width remained unchanged in 60.2% and 87.2% of cases, respectively. No difference in length (P=0.576) and width (P=1) scores was observed in treatment planning with and without tomography. Variation in implant dimension was not affected by location of edentulous areas. Bone grafting and other surgical procedures significantly changed after tomograms (P<0.001), independent of the location of edentulous areas. In 15.8% and 5.3% of cases bone grafting and other procedures were planned only after tomograms, respectively. Significant differences were observed in all maxillary and mandibular regions.
Conclusion: Conventional spiral tomography plays an important role in pre-surgical treatment planning, increasing clinician's certainty of the need of additional surgical procedures (bone grafting, sinus lifting, and others) in pre-surgical treatment stage.