Dental Laser at Our Colorado Springs Office
Laser dentistry can be a precise and effective way to perform many dental procedures. All lasers work by delivering energy in the form of light. When used for surgical and dental procedures, the laser acts as a cutting instrument or a vaporizer of tissue that it comes in contact with. Here are some of the major benefits associated with laser dentistry:
- Procedures performed using soft tissue dental lasers may not require sutures (stitches).
- Certain laser dentistry procedures do not require anesthesia.
- Laser dentistry minimizes bleeding because the high-energy light beam aids in the clotting (coagulation) of exposed blood vessels, thus inhibiting blood loss.
- Bacterial infections are minimized because the high-energy beam sterilizes the area being worked on.
- Damage to surrounding tissue is minimized.
- Wounds heal faster and tissues can be regenerated.
Early Caries Detection: DIAGNOdent
DIAGNOdent is the revolutionary new way to find even the smallest areas of tooth decay. By using this new technology, we are able to target and treat all of your small problem areas before they turn into larger issues that require more complicated procedures. DIAGNOdent is first calibrated to your unique tooth structure by scanning a cleaned tooth surface with a harmless laser beam. After calibration a team member will gently scan your teeth. A small countertop unit emits an audio signal and registers a digital read-out, which identifies cavities developing below the surface. The higher the amount of fluorescence detected by the machine, the greater the degree of decay within the tooth.
The DIAGNOdent measures laser fluorescence within the tooth structure. As the incident laser light is propagated into the site, two-way handpiece optics allows the unit to simultaneously quantify the reflected laser light energy. At the specific wavelength that the DIAGNOdent laser operates, clean healthy tooth structure exhibits little or no fluorescence, resulting in very low scale readings on the display. However, carious tooth structure will exhibit fluorescence, proportionate to the degree of caries, resulting in elevated scale readings on the display.
DIAGNOdent is completely painless. It’s energy level similar to that of a laser pointer, the laser beam is harmless to surrounding tissues. X-rays and DIAGNOdent complement each other. X-rays are good at finding cavities in between teeth and on the roots. DIAGNOdent is good at find cavities on the tooth’s biting surface.
Dr. Roxy, Carrie and Tanya use the DIAGNOdent laser as a routine part of exams and there is no additional fee associated with the scan.