Until recently, the use of lasers in the dental office was marginalized because of the cost of the equipment and its limited use.  Today, many manufacturers and dentists believe "cutting with light" will gain a much wider appeal thanks to recent technological leaps.  Cost is still a concern, but as with most technology that too is declining to some degree.  I’ve attended some courses on the use of lasers in the last few years and have been interested in their application in dentistry.  Lasers debuted in health care in the 1960s.  They made their way into dentistry in the early 1990s and about 5 percent of U.S. practitioners utilize lasers.

Lasers work very well for a number of soft tissue procedures and in the last few years have been approved by the FDA for hard tissue applications (the removal of decay in teeth) as would normally be done you’re dentist’s drill.  Advocates of lasers say faster healing, improved infection control, reduced postoperative pain and sensitivity, reduced patient anxiety and less need for anesthesia or injections are advantages of the laser.  The lasers can also be utilized for in-office whitening procedures of teeth.

Although I am fascinated with lasers and their use in the dental office, I found that removal of decay was slow and the laser produced a lot of noise when removing decay from a tooth.  Believe it or not, the drill sounded a lot better to me than the loud popping sound of the hard tissue laser!  There are different types of lasers available.  Some are better for hard tissue procedures, while others perform better on soft tissue.  Many advocates might argue with me, but I still feel there is a lot of room for improvement before they become common place in most dental offices.

Laser Facts

• "Laser" is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.  A laser is an intense beam of monochromatic light used to do everything from "reading" compact discs to performing surgical operations.
• Soft-tissue lasers work only on soft tissue, such as gums.  Hard-tissue lasers work on tooth and bone.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared five types of lasers for dental use: the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, the Neodymium-Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet (Nd:YAG) laser, the semiconductor diode laser and the erbium series of lasers, the Ebrium-Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet (Er:YAG) and the Erbium-Chromium-Yttrium-Scallium-Gallium-Garnet (Er,Cr:YSGG) – How would you like to memorize that for a test!
• CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers are used for soft tissue procedures, such as lesion removal, biopsies and frenectomies.
• Semiconductor diode lasers also perform many of the soft-tissue procedures of those lasers, in addition to bleaching.
• Erbium lasers work well on soft tissue, but their unique contribution to high-tech dentistry is their ability to perform hard tissue procedures, including cavity removal and some feel eventually root canals.
  

Technology is fun, especially when you get to work with it on a daily basis.  I do think lasers have their place in dentistry and that future growth of their use is likely.  Time will tell, but I do know that all of technology has allowed dentists to provide you with unsurpassed care and the opportunity for a lifetime of outstanding oral health.