Class
How to design a surgical guide in Blue Sky Plan
A hands-on class on planning implants and designing surgical guides in Blue Sky Plan, taught restoratively driven. You import CBCT DICOM plus intraoral STL, align and segment, place implants from the final tooth position backward, then design a tooth- or bone-borne guide and export it print-ready. Planned and reviewed by Nico personally, in exocad and Blue Sky Plan. Format and enrollment on request.
Curriculum
What you'll learn
Five practical modules, worked through on real datasets, so you leave able to run the full guide workflow yourself.
- 01Import DICOM and STL. Load the CBCT DICOM stack and the intraoral STL scan into Blue Sky Plan and set the correct orientation.
- 02Align and segment. Register the STL to the CBCT with paired points, clean the volume, and segment the arch you're planning.
- 03Prosthetic-first planning. Position implants from the final tooth setup backward — angulation, depth, and emergence driven by the restoration, not the bone alone.
- 04Guide design, tooth- or bone-borne. Build the guide shell, seat it on the chosen support, and place sleeves matched to your surgical system.
- 05Export print-ready. Check tolerances, then export a clean STL sized for your printer and validated for a passive fit.
Approach
Why restoratively driven, every time?
A guide is only as good as the plan behind it. If the implant isn't placed for the crown, you fight it later in the lab.
So the class starts from the tooth. You set the ideal restoration, then work the implant into it — screw-access, angulation, and bone all reconciled before a single sleeve is placed.
Tooth-borne guides
For partially dentate cases. We seat on adjacent teeth, verify no rock, and set inspection windows to confirm the fit chairside.
Bone-borne guides
For flapped, edentulous, or full-arch work. We plan fixation pins and stability so the guide can't shift during osteotomy.
Reference
Tooth-borne vs bone-borne — which do you plan?
A quick decision reference covered in the class.
| Factor | Tooth-borne | Bone-borne |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Partially dentate, flapless | Edentulous, full-arch, flapped |
| Support | Adjacent teeth | Bone surface + fixation pins |
| Stability check | No rock on adjacent teeth | Pins planned before osteotomy |
| Fit verification | Inspection windows | Seated after flap reflection |
| Data needed | CBCT DICOM + intraoral STL | CBCT DICOM + STL / denture scan |
FAQ
Common questions
Do I need Blue Sky Plan installed to take the class?
Yes — it's the software we work in. Blue Sky Plan is free to download, so you can follow along on your own datasets or on the sample cases provided.
What files do I bring to a case?
A CBCT DICOM stack and an intraoral STL scan. We cover how to align them, what a clean scan looks like, and what to re-shoot if the data isn't usable.
Does this cover any implant system?
The workflow is system-agnostic. You learn to match sleeves and offsets to whatever surgical kit you run — the planning principles stay the same.
Enroll
Ready to plan your own guides?
Format and enrollment are arranged on request. Tell me your case types and I'll shape the session around them. Prefer it done for you? I plan and design guides directly.
Updated Jul 2026