Surgical template assembly and method for drilling and installing dental implants

A method for locating a dental implant in a patient's jawbone, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a replica of prospective teeth to be supported by a dental implant;
• providing a computer-driven milling machine having a table including tooling locators and holes for locating a CT scan appliance;
• securing said replica to said table;
• securing at least one radiopaque fiducial marker to said replica to form a CT scan appliance;
• coordinating said at least one radiopaque fiducial marker to said computer-driven milling machine, said fiducial marker providing coordination between said CT scan data, said computer generated simulation of said dental implant and said computer driven milling machine;
• and
• positioning said CT scan appliance in a patient's mouth;
• obtaining CT scan data of the patient's jawbone and said at least one fiducial marker;
• computer generating an image of the patient's jawbone from said CT scan data and a superimposed simulation of a dental implant;
• re-supporting said CT scan appliance to said table in said computer-driven milling machine;
• drilling, via said computer-driven milling machine, a hole in said CT scan appliance to form a surgical template, said computer-driven milling machine being interfaced with said computer-generated simulation of said dental implant so that when said surgical template is refitted in the patient's mouth, a trajectory of said hole in said surgical template into the patient's jawbone corresponds to a trajectory of said computer-generated simulation of said dental implant into said computer-generated image of the patient's jawbone, said at least one fiducial marker providing positional coordination between said CT scan data, said computer-generated dental implant position, and said computer-driven milling machine;
• inserting a master cylinder in said hole in said surgical template;
• inserting a drill bushing in said master cylinder to form a surgical template assembly;
• positioning said surgical template assembly in the patient's mouth;
• guiding a drill through said drill bushing in said surgical template assembly to provide a hole in the patient's jawbone.

A method for fabricating a surgical template for use in locating a dental implant in a patient's jawbone, said method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining a CT scan appliance having at least one radiopaque fiducial marker;
• obtaining computer-generated data of the CT scan appliance and jawbone and a computer generating simulation of a dental implant;
• supporting said CT scan appliance in a computer-driven milling machine having a table including tooling locators and holes for locating said CT scan appliance;
• and
• coordinating said CT scan appliance to said computer-driven milling machine, said fiducial marker providing coordination between said CT scan data, said computer-generated simulation of said dental implant and said computer driven milling machine;
• and
• drilling, via said computer-driven milling machine, a hole in said CT scan appliance to form a surgical template, said computer-driven milling machine being interfaced with said computer-generated simulation of said dental implant so that when said surgical template is refitted in the patient's mouth, a trajectory of said hole in said CT scan appliance into the patient's jawbone corresponds to a trajectory of said computer-generated simulation of said dental implant into said computer-generated image of the patient's jawbone.