The greatest key to successful implant therapy is proper placement of the implant in the jaw bone. The key to proper placement is careful preoperative planning. When planning implant treatment, it is important to take the relevant anatomical features and their later prosthetic consequences into account. This is done using a radiographic template of the planned restoration, which until now had to be made by a dental technician. The radiographic template must be inserted in the patient's mouth during radiographic imaging so that the dentist can visualize the prosthetic plan. Implant planning is thus performed according to the backward planning principle. In the novel, fully digital approach to dental implant planning presented here, the prosthetic proposal is designed using computer-aided design software and integrated into a three-dimensional radiograph. This article explains how the technology works and reviews the available data. In addition, the clinical workflows for the SiCAT Optiguide and Sirona Cerec Guide virtual implant planning methods will be described and compared with conventional implant planning methods. Finally, the indications and contraindications for the two methods will be discussed. Keywords: implantology, virtual implant planning, backward planning, Optiguide, Cerec Guide, CBCT, Cerec, CAD/CAM, registration, surgical guide