This article is sponsored by Dental Excellence Integrative Center.

Imagine your cavity being treated without any needles, numbing or even dental drills.

Dental anxiety is common among both children and adults who have negative dental experiences in their past. Dental fear can also be caused by unpleasant noise from the drill along with the sight of needles and metal tools.

This type of trauma leads to denying necessary dental treatments, avoiding regular check-ups, and professional cleaning, etc. Finding ways to overcome this common fear is essential.

Luckily, innovative technology has given us the ability to improve the dental experience for patients while increasing the effectiveness. One of the most significant and recent advancements in dental technology is laser dentistry.

What is laser dentistry?

In medicine, many professionals started to use lasers in providing treatment more than half a century ago. This technique has some beneficial characteristics.

In surgery, the laser’s light beam is focused precisely on the target area to alter or remove inflamed tissues and kill bacteria, without hurting surrounding healthy tissues.

Along with the precision of the laser, a quick recovery for patients is another added bonus. Patients who have laser therapy are more likely to experience less pain, no bleeding and discomfort after laser treatment.

Similarly, the same technique is also used in laser dentistry in order to perform advanced dental work. The development of the dental laser has gone far, compared to when it was discovered. Advanced laser therapy can be applied in many types of dental procedures, such as removing cavities and overgrown tissue, killing bacteria, performing root canals, treating gum disease or even whitening teeth with no sensitivity.

Moreover, laser dentistry is ideal for people and children who are sensitive to needles, physical drills or have dental trauma and anxiety in general.

Benefits

Anxiety associated with dental procedures is greatly reduced due to elimination of injections, drill sound and vibration. Adults and children respond well to the treatment because there’s no drill vibration, or needles involved. Instead, patients only hear a mild popping sound and a cool water spray.

The laser also helps to reduce bacteria in the tooth structure and helps prevent leakage and recurrent cavities under new fillings. Moreover, the latest laser machines use the combo of Erbium:Yag, and Neodymium:Yag (Hard & Soft Tissue Laser) to bring the most comfortable dental experience and minimize gum damage.

In comparison with other traditional techniques, the benefits of treatments performed by Soft & Hard Tissue laser are:

• No Pain or Discomfort
• Non-invasive
• No Needles/Injections
• No Anesthesia or Numbness
• Safe and More Effective
• Shorter Recovery Time

What laser dentistry can treat

• Gum disease treatment.
• Gum reshaping.
• Canker sore and cold sore pain treatments.
• Root canal disinfections.
• Generating collagen production
• Removing inflamed tissues.
• Killing bacteria and virus.
• Sleep Apnea by stimulating the growth of collagen of the oral tissue
• Exposing wisdom teeth.
• Clearing airway or removing throat tissue that causes sleep apnea.
• Regenerating damaged nerves.
• Bone regeneration
• Removing benign oral tumors.
• Lip/Tongue tie release
• Production of the natural collagen production.
• Reducing wrinkles
• Eliminating eyes bags
• Other esthetic and oral issues.

What are different types of lasers in dentistry?

There are two main types of lasers: hard tissue and soft tissue. Hard tissue laser uses a specific light wavelength to accurately cut into the calcium phosphate in your teeth to remove only the infected and decayed area, whereas soft tissue lasers use another light wavelength that blood tissues and water absorb easily. These lasers are ideal for targeting soft tissues and exposed blood vessels, while minimizing bleeding and significantly shortening recovery time. Since each kind of tissue absorbs different light wavelengths under varied levels, laser’s light beams can be adjusted to be compatible with different types of tissues in a patient’s mouth.

As laser technique is not a requirement for every dentist when performing dental work, not many dental offices apply this technology to provide treatment to their patients. Laser-assisted procedures require professional knowledge and expertise and, depending on the needed treatment, each dental office may have different types of laser machines. Some examples of these machines are the BIOLASE – WaterLase iPlus 2.0, LightScalpel LS-1005, Fotona Lightwalker™, Solea® CO2 Laser, etc.

According to American Dental Association dental product guide,  Lightwalker™ is a  high-performance Er:YAG and Nd:YAG laser machine for soft and hard tissue, which applies  state-of-the-art OPTOflex® articulated arm, Fotona’s patented QSP & VSP digital square pulse technology to guarantee the ultimate performance and treatment precision.

In conclusion, Laser dentistry is an innovation in creating more effective and convenient solutions to numerous oral and dental problems, whether it be major dental needs or simply cosmetic.

To get more information about Dental Excellence’s new laser, visit https://www.dentalexcellenceva.com/laser-dentistry.html