Guided surgery and presurgical prosthesis: preliminary results of 33 fully edentulous maxillae treated in accordance with the NobelGuide protocol.

Objective: The aim of this study was to present the preliminary results of 33 edentulous maxillary patients treated using the Nobelguide® (Nobel Biocare AB, Goteborg, Sweden) technique. Materials and Methods: Thirty-three patients were treated according to the conventional protocol of the Nobelguide® technique in two clinical centers. This group of patients received 211 implants. Monitoring was carried out for over 12–51 months, depending on the patient. The Nobelguide® protocol was used for all patients. Results: Of the 211 implants loaded, four were lost (1.9%). The implant survival rate was therefore 98.1%. The prosthetic survival rate was 100%. There were some per-operative complications (four) and some postoperative complications (10 fractures of resin). Conclusion: These preliminary results seemed rather promising. These were the first cases of experienced surgeons who needed to learn a new implant placement protocol. It was clear that analysis and understanding of the system were essential in order to obtain such a success. Only one implant was replaced without there being any impact on the prosthesis survival rate which is 100%.