Simplant/Facilitate™ CT Scan Guide for Radiologists*

This protocol describes the guidelines for a CT scan that is taken for the purpose of ordering a SimPlant project and/or a SurgiGuide from Materialise. This protocol is preferably transferred to the radiology department, together with the scan order.

SimPlant is the dental planning software of Materialise, which uses high quality CT images for the preoperative planning of dental implants. The image quality you experience within the SimPlant software depends on the capability of the CT scanner to produce thin-sliced, highresolution axial images. It is also essential to the quality of the images, that your scan site is provided with and properly follows this scanning rotocol.

With high quality images, the preoperative plan can be made with greater ease and accuracy. At Materialise, SurgiGuide are designed and generated based on both the CT images and the preoperative plan. SurgiGuide are drill guides that indicate both the position and orientation of the planned implants. They are used to transfer the plan to surgery and guide the surgeon’s drill according to the preoperative plan.

Using this scanning protocol as a guideline will not only result in a more accurate plan, but will assure a precise fit of the SurgiGuide on the jaw, and in the end, a pleased patient with nicely positioned teeth.

General scanning instructions
• Set the table height so that the mandible or maxilla is centered in the scan field.
• All slices must have the same field of view, the same reconstruction center, and the same table height.
• Scanning with a field of view that is too large can compromise the resolution of the
reformatted images. Scanning with a field of view that is too small can cause the jaw to
not fit in all the axial images.
• Not overlapping the axial slices can reduce the quality of the reformatted images.
• Scan all slices of the study in the same direction.
• Scan with the same slice spacing; the slice spacing must be less than or equal to the
slice thickness. The slice thickness should preferably not be larger than 1 mm.
• All of the remaining teeth/scan prosthesis should be completely visible in the images up to the occlusal plane.
• The Gantry tilt should be 0 degrees.

*Complete scan details must be downloaded via the link above