Medical technology keeps moving at lightning speed, and the same is true for dentistry. Just as you’ve heard about the use of lasers in medical care, these state-of-the-art machines are being used more in dentistry. Laser dentistry minimizes bleeding as the high-energy light beam helps with quick blood clotting. Bacterial infections are minimized because the laser beam sterilizes the area. Damage to surrounding tissues is minimized as well, and wounds tend to heal faster.
Here are some ways we use lasers in the office to help our patients:
Hard Tissue (tooth) Laser Dentistry:
*There is a low intensity dental laser than can detect cavities even earlier.
*Hard tissue dental lasers may eliminate the need for a local anesthetic injection and the traditional turbine dental drill for some fillings and tooth preparation.
*Dental lasers may be used to seal tubules responsible for hot and cold tooth sensitivity.
Soft Tissue (gum) Laser Dentistry:
*Lasers may be used when crown lengthening is needed. This is when gum tissue needs to be reshaped to expose healthier tooth structure.
*They can also be used to reshape gum tissue to expose healthy tooth structure and improve the appearance of gummy smile.
*A laser frenectomy helps children who are tongue tied and babies unable to breast feed adequately due to limited tongue movement.
*Denture wearers can benefit from dental lasers when they are used to painlessly remove soft tissue folds caused by ill-fitting dentures.
Other Dental Laser Uses:
*Lasers are being used to speed up certain whitening procedures.
*Dental lasers may be used to painlessly remove benign oral tumors.
*Low intensity dental lasers can be used to treat cold sores, reducing pain and shortening the heal time.