New techniques in spark erosion: The solution to an accurately fitting screw-retained implant restoration

How accurate is today's method of casting in the dental laboratory? Normally it is good enough, but what happens if the dental technician is confornted with an extensive restoration or has to deal with the precision of prefabricated implant abutments? In either case, he or she is headed for trouble. So what is to be done, especially if both of these components come together? The force transferred to the osseointegrated endosseous implants is naturally undesirable and the main reason for premature loss of the implants. The present article describes the production of an implant-related restoration for a 50-year-old patient. The plans were to make a partially removable, implant abutment-connected, base metal framework and to administer spark-erosion machining to achieve a passive fit.