DENTAL SURGERY GUIDE SYSTEM

Abstract

A dental surgery guide system for use with a dental handpiece for forming a bore in a patient's jaw bone to receive a dental implant comprises a surgical template and a handpiece jig; the top of the handpiece guide can slide below the top of the template guide rail.

Claims

1. A dental surgery guide system for use with a surgical handpiece for a surgical intervention, notably for forming a bore in a patient's jaw bone to receive a dental implant, the dental surgery guide system comprising: a surgical template adapted to be secured within the patient's mouth, the surgical template comprising an opening that coincides with a surgical axis, notably an implant axis for the dental implant, to allow passage of a surgical instrument, notably to create a bore in the patient's jaw bone along the implant axis; one or more template guide rails, each template guide rail having its longitudinal axis aligned parallel to and offset from the surgical axis; and a template stop; a handpiece jig adapted to be secured to the surgical handpiece, said handpiece jig comprising: one or more handpiece guides, each handpiece guide being engageable with a respective template guide rail, and a handpiece stop; wherein cooperation between the handpiece guide(s) and the template guide rail(s) restrains the lateral position and the axial orientation of the surgical instrument relative to the surgical template during the surgical intervention, notably during creation of a bore in the patient's jaw bone; and wherein the template stop and the handpiece stop are adapted to cooperate to limit the position to which the surgical instrument can advance, notably during creation of the bore in the patient's jaw bone, and wherein the top of the handpiece guide can slide below the top of the template guide rail.

2. The dental surgery guide system of claim 1 wherein the template stop is positioned towards the base of the one or more template guide rails.

3. The dental surgery guide system of claim 1 wherein the one or more template guide rails comprise the template stop.

4. The dental surgery guide system of claim 1 wherein the one or more template guide rails comprise a hollow passage in which its associated handpiece guide is slidably moveable during the surgical intervention, notably during formation of a bore in the patient's jaw bone.

5. The dental surgery guide system of claim 4, wherein the hollow passage of the one or more template guide rails is substantially cylindrical and the one or more template guide rails comprise a lateral opening along its length which opens into the hollow passage.

6. The dental surgery guide system of claim 5, wherein the one or more handpiece guides comprise a substantially cylindrical pin.

7. The dental surgery guide system of claim 5, wherein the handpiece jig comprises an attachment ring adapted to be secured to the surgical handpiece and one or more supporting flange(s) projecting from the attachment ring wherein the one or more handpiece guide(s) are attached to respective supporting flange(s), wherein the supporting flange(s) are adapted to be slidably received in the lateral opening of the respective template guide rail and wherein the handpiece stop is provided by a portion of the one or more supporting flange(s).

8. The dental surgery guide system of claim 1 wherein the handpiece jig has two handpiece guides.

9. The dental surgery guide system of claim 8, wherein the two handpiece guides are positioned in a same plane that contains the surgical axis.

10. The dental surgery guide system of claim 1 wherein the surgical instrument is a piezotome tip.

11. The dental surgery guide system of claim 1 wherein the surgical instrument is a drill.

12. The dental surgery guide system of claim 1 wherein the bottom of the template guide rail(s) is positioned at a level below the upper position of the gingiva and/or jaw bone.

13. A surgical template for use with a dental surgery guide system and a surgical handpiece for a surgical intervention, notably for forming a bore in a patient's jaw bone to receive a dental implant, wherein the surgical template is adapted to be secured within the patient's mouth and comprises: an opening that coincide with a surgical axis, notably an implant axis for a dental implant, to allow passage of a surgical instrument, notably to create a bore in the patient's jaw bone along the implant axis; one or more template guide rails, each template guide rail having its longitudinal axis aligned parallel to and offset from the surgical axis; and a template stop; and wherein the dental surgery guide system further comprises a handpiece jig adapted to be secured to the surgical handpiece, said handpiece jig comprising: one or more handpiece guides, each handpiece guide being engageable with a respective template guide rail, and a handpiece stop; wherein cooperation between the handpiece guide(s) and the template guide rail(s) restrains the lateral position and the axial orientation of the surgical instrument relative to the surgical template during the surgical intervention, notably during creation of a bore in the patient's jaw bone; and wherein the template stop and the handpiece stop are adapted to cooperate to limit the position to which the dental instrument can advance during the surgical intervention, notably during creation of a bore in the patient's jaw bone, and wherein the top of the handpiece guide can slide below the top of the template guide rail.

Description

[0024] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings of which:

[0025] FIG. 1 is a schematic representative of a surgical template;

[0026] FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b are schematic representatives of handpiece jigs;

[0027] FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are sequential cross sections of a drilling operation;

[0028] FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of a piezotome tip and a handpiece jig secured to a dental handpiece.

[0029] FIG. 1 shows a custom surgical template 1 secured on a patient's dentition 2. The surgical template comprises: an opening 3 that coincide with a surgical axis, in this case a drilling and implant axis 13 (see FIG. 2); two template guide rails 4a, 4b; and two template stops (not visible). Each template guide rail 4a, 4b comprises a substantially cylindrical hollow passage 5 and a lateral opening 6 along its length which opens into the hollow passage and into the template opening 3. The template guide rails 4a, 4b are retained by part of a template frame, notably comprising a series of template struts. The open form of the template frame facilitates accessibility and visibility for the surgical site which in this example is a site at the jaw bone located between the template guide rails 4a, 4b.

[0030] For simplicity, the illustrated surgical template is shown for drilling a single bore. Generally, the surgical template is configured for providing two or more spaced bores, the position of each desired bore being provided by respective template guide rails.

[0031] FIG. 2a shows an enlarged view of a first embodiment of template guide rails 4a, 4b and a handpiece jig 7 adapted to cooperate with the template guide rails. Template stops 8 are located towards the bottom of the template guide rails. The handpiece jig comprises: an attachment ring 9 adapted to be secured to a surgical handpiece, in this case a dental drilling handpiece; two supporting flanges 10a,10b projecting from the attachment ring; and two male type handpiece guides 11a, 11b each of which is adapted to be slidably received in a respective one of the female type template guides 4a,4b during the surgical intervention. Each of the two handpiece guides 11a, 11b is attached to a respective supporting flange 10a, 10b of the handpiece jig; a portion of each supporting flange 10a, 10b is adapted to be slidably received in the lateral opening 8 of its respective template guide rails 4a, 4b during the surgical intervention. A handpiece stop 12a,12b is provided at each supporting flange. As illustrated in FIG. 2a, the handpiece stops 12a, 12b may be provided at or towards a lower portion of the supporting flange(s), notably by a lower surface of the supporting flange(s). The supporting flanges (and respective handpiece guides) are situated on either side of the attachment ring with the drilling axis 13 and the principal axis of each handpiece guide being coplanar. As illustrated, each supporting flange 10a, 10b may be attached to its respective handpiece guide 11a, 11b along substantially the entire length of its handpiece guide 11a, 11b; this assists in providing mechanical stability. Each supporting flange may rise, notably in an arc, from a lower portion to an upper portion at which it is attached to the attachment ring 9 so as to provide a greater separation between the two flanges at their lower portions compared with the opening at their upper portions; this again contributes to accessibility and visibility for the surgical site, particularly for a surgical intervention in a patient's jaw bone.

[0032] FIG. 2b illustrates an alternative embodiment in which the handpiece jig 7 comprises handpiece stops 14a, 14b, at or towards the top of each supporting flange and the template guide rails 4a, 4b comprise template stops 15a, 15b which are located at the exterior of the template guide rails 4a, 4b. Notably in this type of configuration, each handpiece guide is preferably associated with a pair of handpiece stops, for example a first handpiece stop 14a positioned at a front face of the flange 10a and a second handpiece stop (not shown) positioned at a corresponding position at a rear face of the flange 10a. Each such handpiece stop cooperates with an associated template stop, for example, a pair of template stops 15a located either side of a lateral opening 8 or slot of the template guide 4a.

[0033] In FIG. 3 sequential positions of the handpiece guide 11a, 11b of FIG. 2a are shown in use during a drilling procedure. For clarity other portions of the surgical template are not shown. Notably, this illustrates engagement and sliding progression of the handpiece guides 11a, 11b of the handpiece jig 7 within the template guide rails 4a, 4b and penetration of a drill bit 16 into the jaw bone 17 to create a desired bore. The two template guide rails are located on either side of the gingiva and jaw bone and the bottom of the template guide rails 18 are positioned at a level below the upper position of the gingiva 19 and corresponding jaw bone 17. When the template guide rails are engaged within the handpiece guides, the surgeon has only a single degree of free movement i.e. a sliding movement of the drill bit towards or away from the jaw bone at a predefined lateral position and along a predefined axis. The drill can be slid towards the surgical site guided by the surgical template and the handpiece jig. The maximum depth of the handpiece jig relative to the surgical template, and thus the maximum depth bore drilled, is fixed by contact between the template stops 8a, 8b and the handpiece stop 12a,12b.

[0034] FIG. 4 shows corresponding positions of a handpiece guides 11a, 11b during a drilling procedure using the system of FIG. 2b; the maximum depth of the handpiece jig relative to the surgical template, and thus the maximum depth bore drilled, is fixed by contact 20 between the template stops 15a, 15b and the handpiece stop 14a,14b.

[0035] FIG. 5 shows a piezotome tip 21 and a handpiece jig 7 secured to a surgical handpiece 23, in this embodiment through a suitable connecting piece 22. As illustrated, it is preferable, to allow free vibration of the piezotome tip 21, for example by securing the handpiece jig to, for example, the surgical handpiece 23 rather than to the piezotome tip 21 or any vibrating part of the piezotome system but in a way that the position of the handpiece jig with respect to the piezotome tip 21 is fixed