Implant dentistry has been established as a sufficient treatment for partially or fully edentulous patients over the recent years. Apart from performing the surgical procedures correctly, the optimal implant position in relation to the dental arch and the alveolar ridge was recognized to contribute to the long-term success of dental implants (Matta et al., 2017). Currently, various static methods are available to determine and transfer the ideally planned implant position to the clinical situation, e. g. freehand implant insertion, guiding the pilot drill, guided preparation of the implant cavity, fully guided preparation of the implant cavity in combination with guided implant insertion (Block et al., 2017). Recent studies showed that a three-dimensional planning of the ideal implant position and a fully guided preparation of the implant cavity is highly correlated with a higher accuracy when compared to free-handed or pilot-drill guided implant placement (Nickenig et al., 2010, Scherer et al., 2015, Vermeulen, 2017, Schulz et al., 2018, Schulz et al., 2019, Ketabi et al., 2021). Both, experienced and unexperienced surgeons, benefit from guided surgery although the effect might be more pronounced for unexperienced surgeons (Cushen and Turkyilmaz, 2013, Vermeulen, 2017).

Currently, there is an increasing interest of undergraduate dental students to participate in training for oral implantology (Sánchez-Garcés et al., 2017, Sharma et al., 2018, Chaturvedi et al., 2021). However, oral implantology is a surgical intervention with a potential of injuring important adjacent anatomical structures, e. g. the maxillary sinus, the mandibular canal and adjacent teeth if not properly planned (Hillerup, 2007, Lozano-Carrascal et al., 2017, Lovasova et al., 2018). Furthermore, it was reported in a recent study that the estimation of correct distances and depths is challenging for undergraduate dental students in a skills test (Dimitrijevic et al., 2011) which might also cause difficulties when inserting dental implants. Thus, prior to the treatment of patients a participation in a pre-clinical simulation is highly recommended (Maalhagh-Fard and Nimmo, 2008). In order to provide dental undergraduates with the opportunity to train these skills in a laboratory set up and to get familiar with a clinically applied method to determine the correct implant position and angulation a hands-on course was established in the dental curriculum of our faculty. The use of templates offers a close guiding of the drilling process to the students. Additionally, it enables the instructors to give feedback on the achieved accuracy to the students. This kind of feedback is one part of a quality-controlled training which offers an increased safety for the patients (Kim and Stagnell, 2018).

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the accuracy that can be achieved using pilot-drill guided and full-guided templates in a laboratory set up by dental students who are not experienced in oral implantology. We hypothesized that applying full-guided implant insertion would lead to a higher accuracy compared to pilot-drill guided implant insertion. Therefore, undergraduates of the fifth year in dental school were enrolled. Additionally to the evaluation of accuracy parameters, demographic factors, e. g. sex, handedness, potential education before dental school, were recorded. Furthermore, the students were asked to complete a questionnaire in order to register their perception of the education in oral implantology.