What Is Yomi Robotic Dental Surgery? A Plain-English Introduction
An honest, jargon-free introduction to Yomi — the FDA-cleared robotic system for dental implant placement — and what 'robotic surgery' actually means when a patient is in the chair.
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The word "robotic" in any medical context tends to spark one of two reactions: excitement that the technology is ahead of where you thought, or wariness that something between you and your clinician now has wires. Both reactions are reasonable. Both, in the case of Yomi, are also slightly off.
Here's what Yomi is, what it does, and what it feels like from the chair.
What Yomi actually is#
Yomi is a haptic robotic system, manufactured by Neocis and FDA-cleared specifically for dental implant placement. "Haptic" is the key word: it's not an autonomous robot. It's a guidance system that holds and steadies the surgical handpiece, providing real-time physical feedback to the clinician so the drill stays exactly within the planned trajectory.
The clinician moves the handpiece. The robot resists motion outside the plan. The patient is awake or sedated as they would be for any implant placement. There's no robotic arm reaching into your mouth on its own.
How it works during a placement#
Before the surgical day, your case is planned in 3D using your CBCT scan. We map the exact angle, depth, and position of every implant relative to your nerves, sinuses, neighboring teeth, and bite. That digital plan becomes the surgical blueprint Yomi follows.
On the day, the system tracks your jaw position in real time using a small mouth-mounted sensor. As the clinician approaches the planned trajectory, the haptic arm guides the handpiece into position. If the clinician would otherwise drift outside the plan — by a fraction of a millimeter — the system pushes back, gently, the way power steering does in a car at speed.
For the patient, this looks and feels almost identical to a traditional placement. There's an extra device in the room. Beyond that, the experience is the experience.
Why this matters clinically#
Standard implant placement is, in good hands, very accurate. Studies of freehand placement — clinician using imaging and judgment — consistently show small but real deviations from the planned position, on the order of 1–2mm. For most cases, that's clinically fine.
In some cases, it isn't. The margin matters when:
- The implant is going near the inferior alveolar nerve in the lower jaw, where deviation can mean numbness.
- The implant is going into the sinus floor in the upper jaw, where over-penetration can mean a sinus complication.
- The implant is in the front of the mouth, where 1mm of angulation is the difference between a beautiful crown and a visible compromise.
- A full-arch case relies on multiple implants converging on a precise prosthetic plan.
In those cases, the difference between a fraction of a millimeter and a full millimeter is the difference between a textbook outcome and a workaround.
What patients usually ask#
The first question is almost always "is this experimental?" — and it isn't. Yomi has been FDA-cleared for general dental implant procedures since 2017 and for full-arch since 2020. Tens of thousands of implants have been placed with it across the U.S. The system itself is regulated medical hardware, not a research instrument.
The second question is whether it costs more. The honest answer: not meaningfully, in our practice. The investment in the system is ours; the value of the precision is mostly clinical. The cost difference for a Yomi-guided implant compared with a non-guided one in our office is small enough that it doesn't drive patient decisions.
Frequently asked questions#
No. The clinician does the surgery. The robot provides physical, real-time guidance that keeps the handpiece on the planned trajectory. Think of it as a precision tool that works with the surgeon, not in place of one.
For specific cases — particularly those near nerves, sinuses, or in the aesthetic zone — there's measurable improvement in placement accuracy, which translates to lower risk of complications. For straightforward cases, traditional placement is also very safe.
Almost nothing different. The visit is similar in length (sometimes slightly shorter), the anesthesia is the same, and the recovery is the same. The differences are mostly behind the scenes.
Not necessarily — we use Yomi when the clinical case benefits from the precision. Many straightforward placements are done freehand or with a static surgical guide, both of which are also excellent tools.
