Legal Risks in Making Surgical Guide for Implant Patient?

I am not sure of the legal ramifications here. However, this is not proper handling of this patient. If a prosthodontist is going to restore the case, he should see the patient first and do an appropriate work up. The prosthodontist should make the surgical guide if he is going to be the restoring DDS. I am an oral surgeon, and I do not ask my referrals to provide guides for all cases. If there are issues regarding the placement of implants, we discuss the case together. I send my cases to a trusted lab that knows my protocols, and they make a guide for me. It sounds to me like the OMFS is a bit lazy. It's not that hard to take some alginate impressions and work with a lab.

I agree with sboms. I'm an oral surgeon in NJ, and I would never think to ask my referring GP to make me a surgical guide. The surgeon doing the case is the one responsible for the guide. Find yourself another surgeon.

I agree with most of the comments from sboms. The oral surgeon may be showing his appreciation for your referral by trying to get you involved in the planning of the case, but sboms is right in that the prosthodontist(restoring dentist) should be doing the planing and surgical guide. A surgical guide for a central incisor is just about the easiest thing to do if you have a vacuum forming machine, and it is done by waxing a denture tooth in the propper place and vacuuforming a 35 or 40 thick clear splint material over the cast and then trimming it so it can rest stable on the dentition. A hole or slot is made usually at the incisal edge or slightly lingual to guide the surgeon in the angulation of the drill. To be honest, once you have done a few anterior implants you can use the adjacent teeth as a guide(for a single tooth) and don't really need the surgical guide. You really should get more involved in the restoration of implants. You cannot afford not to. Good luck, and hope this helps.

sounds like you have a lazy oral surg. the person placing the implant should meet with the restor. dentist and decide on location, since you will not be restoring why should you decide where to place implant.