The objective of this in vitro study was to evaluate and compare the accuracy of zygomatic dental implant (ZI) placement carried out using a dynamic navigation system. Materials and Methods: Forty (40) ZIs were randomly distributed into one of two study groups: (A) ZI placement via a computer-aided dynamic navigation system (n = 20) (navigation implant (NI)); and (B) ZI placement using a conventional free-hand technique (n = 20) (free-hand implant (FHI)). A cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan of the existing situation was performed preoperatively to plan the surgical approach for the computer-aided study group. Four zygomatic dental implants were placed in anatomically based polyurethane models (n = 10) manufactured by stereolithography, and a postoperative CBCT scan was performed. Subsequently, the preoperative planning and postoperative CBCT scans were added to dental implant software to analyze the coronal entry point, apical end point, and angular deviations. Results were analyzed using the Student’s t-test. Results: The results showed statistically significant differences in the apical end-point deviations between FHI and NI (p = 0.0018); however, no statistically significant differences were shown in the coronal entry point (p = 0.2617) or in the angular deviations (p = 0.3132). Furthermore, ZIs placed in the posterior region showed more deviations than the anterior region at the coronal entry point, apical end point, and angular level. Conclusions: The conventional free-hand technique enabled more accurate placement of ZIs than the computer-assisted surgical technique. In addition, placement of ZIs in the anterior region was more accurate than that in the posterior region.
Keywords: computer-aided surgery; image-guided surgery; implantology; navigation system; zygomatic implants.