A hybrid method for dental implant treatment planning and a corresponding approach to make a surgical guide. After digital treatment planning is performed with CT scan data, a master model is created, which embodies the patient anatomy and entire treatment plan. Jaw bone, tooth surfaces, soft tissues and nerves are all contained by the master model. The plan details including implant sizes and positions, surgical guide drill options, as well as the choice of a surgical kit, are all conveyed by the master model. Meanwhile, models of specially designed “implant inserts (or replicas)” are also generated, which have one end that fits into the implant holes on the master model and another end to make the surgical guide. The master model and inserts are manufactured with rapid prototyping technology. A surgical guide is later on made from them with conventional lab processes. A main characteristic of this approach is that the master model and the inserts are the physical embodiment of a virtual treatment plan. With them, the surgeons can continue the treatment planning for operations like tooth extractions and bone modifications before making the surgical guides. Therefore the treatment planning workflow is a combination of digital treatment planning and a physical model based planning, in other words, a hybrid approach. A differentiator in this invention is the generation of a closed solid model of the soft tissue, as part of the master model, from the scan data. This approach can be applied to create both bone-borne and tissue-borne surgical guides with low cost process, which is a big advantage over other approaches.
