Background: Surgical stents are a prerequisite for dental implant diagnosis. However, the traditional fabrication method including wax-up, investment, and resin polymerization is time consuming.
Purpose: This article introduces a new fabrication system using a light-curing resin and transparent artificial teeth to reduce time spent in the laboratory.
Materials and method: The process of this system includes placing the light-curing resin and the artificial teeth on the partially edentulous dentition and alveolar ridge, making an appropriate pattern for the stent, light-curing for 5 minutes, briefly polishing, and making holes for titanium guide pins.
Results: This system requires only 30 to 40 minutes in the laboratory to complete a stent after mounting the casts on the articulator. Owing to the elasticity of the light-curing resin, this system eliminates the need for a blockout procedure on the undercuts of existing teeth on the casts, protects the casts from breakage, and provides the appropriate retention intraorally without any retainers. As well, titanium guide pins embedded in the stent were clearly identified by panoramic and computed tomographies.
Conclusions: The new fabrication system proposed here can be time saving and, further, serve benefits for radiographic diagnosis.