Tooth-supported, tissue-supported and bone-supported guides
The three ways a surgical guide can seat, and what each one depends on to sit accurately.
A guide is only as accurate as its seat. Whatever the design, the guide has to sit in one repeatable position and stay there under drilling — so guides are classified by the tissue they rest on.
Tooth-supported
The guide rests on remaining teeth adjacent to the site. Where there are sound teeth on both sides of the gap, this is the most straightforward to seat: teeth are rigid, their surfaces are captured accurately by an intraoral scan, and seating can be confirmed visually through inspection windows.
Tissue-supported (mucosa-supported)
The guide rests on the soft tissue of an edentulous ridge. Used where there are no teeth to seat on. Mucosa is compressible and moves, so these designs usually depend on fixation — anchor pins through the guide into bone — and on the guide being seated in a defined, reproducible way.
Bone-supported
The guide rests directly on bone, which means the site is opened and a flap raised before the guide is placed. It removes soft tissue from the equation entirely, at the cost of a more invasive procedure. Typically reserved for cases where the other two are not viable.
What this means for the data you send
- Tooth-supported designs depend on an accurate surface scan of the teeth the guide will seat on.
- Tissue-supported designs depend on the ridge being captured accurately, and usually on a plan for fixation.
- In every case the CBCT and the surface scan have to be alignable to one another — that alignment is what puts the plan in the right place.
DUX designs all three. Which one suits a case is a clinical judgement — describe the case when you submit it and we will tell you what we would do before you are charged.