subject: With Laser Dentistry, You Can Leave Your Fears Behind [print this page] In the recent past, lasers were introduced to dentistry for the treatment of softer tissues like the gums, inner walls and the tongue. In the past, the first laser machines were somehow unable to penetrate hard tissue like teeth and bones. Today, the new lasers are doing wonders for dentistry, unknown in conventional dentistry.
There is an observable emergence of a more favorable attitude toward the dentist with the development of the laser. Lasers have made dental procedure convenient for dentists and painless for patients because there is no need for pressure on the tissues to be worked on. Because lasers work on beams, they do not produce sound, much less whines or other offensive noise.
Hopefully, with a little more enhancement, the laser could be used on metal dental fillings in the near future. Amalgam fillings contain mercury and if reflections of the filling hit the eye or the skin, they can cause irritation or rashes.
When the laser beam hits the mercury fillings, a poisonous vapor is freed into the air. This also holds true for gold fillings.
The new system is a versatile machine that has two complementary operations. Lasers cut through hard tissue with precision by aiming at each specific molecule.
The new laser machines are extremely accurate because the laser beam is highly collimated and can be directed and concentrated only to the affected spots leaving the nearby tissues undisturbed.
Being able to determine bad tissue from good tissue, the first laser automatically augments power to destroy a bad tissue and decreases it when it touches a good tissue.
The second laser complements the first and it is used more for procedures on delicate soft tissues and resembles those used by dermatologists for aesthetics. Its energy levels can be adjusted depending on the kind of soft tissue to be worked on to ensure a gentle procedure.
This is reason for optimism for patients who have fears and anxieties. Without the noise, heat, pain and anxiety, the laser is capable of doing just about anything for state of the art oral health care.
The new laser is a must for every trustworthy dental professional. As long as mercury fillings are in use, the drill is here to stay even with the emergence of the mighty laser.
It does not work on old mercury fillings but it is perfect to use on untouched teeth. If the decay is caused by existing mercury fillings, it still has to be removed by a conventional drill.
