Powerful Potential for Surgery LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, a complicated string of words that basically means a single wavelength beam of highly concentrated light energy.
Lasers have transformed medical surgery by offering minimally-invasive alternatives to traditional scalpel incisions and sutured closures. The laser's intense, narrow wavelength has precise, predictable, and powerful reactions when it contacts hard or soft tissues of the body. Laser light is extremely efficient, producing very little heat as it acts on its target. This makes it ideal for oral surgery, since it seldom affects tissues other than those it targets. The laser provides precise control over the depth and extent of cutting, while simultaneously minimizing bleeding and sterilizing the treatment area.
Versatility and Applications
However, a laser can also cure (harden) dental materials, scan teeth to detect decay, vaporize decay and prep teeth for fillings, and activate whitening gel to brighten smiles. Currently, dental applications include gum disease treatments, gum re-contouring, root canal cleaning, decay detection and elimination, bonding material curing and strengthening, incision cauterizing and tissue fusion, lesion reparation, biopsies, and super-fast teeth whitening procedures.
If you have questions about the lasers we use, please call us. We enjoy helping patients understand all of the interesting innovations we implement for their comfort and care.
What do powdered fruit, talc, honey, dried
flowers, mice and lizard livers have in common? They have all
been ingredients in ancient toothpaste and powder. Yum.
Attention Chocolate Lovers…Many dentists
agree raisins can cause more tooth decay than chocolate. Sticky
foods such as raisins and dried fruits can stay on the teeth
longer and develop more decay.
According to a study at the University of
Connecticut, too much toothpaste early in life is responsible
for more than 70% of fluorosis cases (staining or mottling of
tooth enamel that develops when children swallow fluoridated
toothpaste). Although this problem is only cosmetic, it is recommended
children under six only use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste
and be reminded to spit it out after brushing.
