Game Changer: Digitally Fabricated Surgical Guides

A consistently strong implant market remains good news for the 37% of laboratories offering surgical guides. However, according to the results of LMT’s State of the Industry 2020 survey (see demographics here), the real winners in this market are those laboratories leveraging digital technology for surgical guide fabrication.

Sixty percent of those that offer surgical guides fabricate at least some of them digitally (see chart below). These labs are four times as likely to say they’ve seen growth in this service over the last five years than those who only use analog methods, largely due to the increase in guided surgery techniques.

“More implant companies are promoting their guided surgical kits, especially to GPs, so we’re seeing a big jump in digitally planned surgical guides,” says Kevin Westrich Jr.,...