Dental Lasers

Lasers are common in many areas of medicine today. They are widely used in surgery where they are used to reshape, remove, cut or repair diseased areas of the body. The laser is a high intensity focus beam of light, which causes a reaction in the cells of the body that allows in many cases a bloodless incision.

In dentistry there are two types of lasers: hard tissue lasers and soft tissue lasers.

Hard tissue lasers can actually remove tooth structure. This has a nice advantage in that there is no real “drilling” and thus can often be done without anesthesia. However this process is not suitable for very large fillings requiring many changes of the tooth nor can it be used to remove an older worn-out filling or crown.

Soft tissue lasers are for altering the soft tissues such as the gingival (gums) or cheek tissues. This is a very gentle procedure often requiring no injected anesthesia or stitches but commonly only a topical anesthetic. Usually there is no bleeding at all and healing is very quick. There are a number of applications:

• Biopsies
• Gentle removal of overgrown gum tissue around braces or orthodontic appliances
• Improving the accuracy of impressions for dental veneers or cosmetic procedures
• Exposing deep decay
• Revealing dental implants

We have been using a soft tissue laser now in Houston for years without complications. There are no significant risks.