ACCURACY OF SPLINT VS SPLINTLESS TECHNIQUE FOR VIRTUALLY PLANNED ORTHOGNATHIC SURGERY: A VOXEL BASED THREE-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

Virtual planning in orthognathic surgery has nowadays become a clinical reality and has introduced important advantages in terms of accuracy and planning duration when compared to conventional surgical planning. One of the main concerns regarding virtual planning is the method that is used to transfer the virtual surgical plan into the operation theater. With the many transferring methods proposed, the evidence is confusion regarding the accuracy of each of these methods for reliably transferring the virtual plan. Furthermore, the accuracy analysis itself, has been performed with numerous techniques and not all of them are capable of producing reliable results on the accuracy of different transferring methods. The purpose of this study is to compare two transferring methods, the CAD/CAM intermediate splint and the customized surgical guide with fixation plates, by means of a voxel-based landmark free accuracy analysis.