Soft Tissue Laser

A new special approach to laser surgery is the soft tissue laser which through interaction of laser light with soft tissue allows for easier and cleaner dental surgery procedures. The soft tissue laser has very unique benefits over the traditional methods and since its invention it has drastically changed many surgical fields. Dental surgeons are not the only professional surgeons that use the soft tissue laser; the technology is widely used across many medical professions and has a variety of applications to make complicated surgery much cleanlier and safer for the Doctors using them and the patients they are working on.

When gum treatment is needed, the new technology also offers numerous advantages for the patient. The lasers can be used to both sterilize gum pockets and decrease their size, by disinfecting the diseased pockets. The lasers dehydrate and therefore kill the bacteria in the pocket space, so treated areas recover faster and healthier than with conventional scraping procedures.

In addition to necessary dental procedures, laser treatments also allow patients simple and painless ways to achieve cosmetic improvements, such as gingival recontouring and crown lengthening, which can improve a gummy smile.

"My patients are very enthusiastic about the laser," says Dr. Botbol "are always happy when given the choice to avoid an invasive surgical procedure. And to be able to leave the office with no pain and no numb lip really changes the way many patients feel about their dental visit."

Soft Tissue

There are many benefits from the use of soft tissue laser. For instance, it can remove diseased gum tissue to help prevent gum disease. Additionally, the laser is an excellent tool for use in cosmetic dentistry such as recontouring a "too gummy" smile.

Odyssey

The Odyssey laser provides comfortable, preventive, minimally invasive treatment options. The light from the Odyssey laser's wavelength has been precisely made for soft tissue applications. The light can be focused into a tiny point to do very fine, exact work. It's precision in dental surgery reduces tissue swelling and there is less need for sutures. It is gentle on soft gum tissue and can stop bleeding from even the tiniest blood vessel. The heat from the laser also has a sterilization effect.

Lasers quickly are becoming a larger part of dentistry. Lasers produce less bleeding than scalpels and heal faster and with less discomfort than a scalpel. Stitches or sutures often are not necessary when a laser is used. Doctors Garry and Miller are using the Odyssey® Laser for procedures such as to heal or eliminate apthous ulcers, esthetic gum contouring or crown lengthening, frenum relief, biopsy procedures, and control bleeding in diseased gums.

A soft tissue laser works by using a highly focused laser beam to vaporize the soft tissue that contains high water content. These laser beams are able to create very small incisions when they are focused on the tissue, the focal spot of the laser can be as small as 0.1 mm of course the mostly widely used setting is 0.4 mm. One of the most amazing abilities of the soft tissue laser is its ability to cauterize small blood vessels and lymphatic’s and decrease post-operative swellings and the soft tissue laser has the added effect of natural sterilization as it evaporates bacteria, viruses and fungi, this leads to a large decrease in local infections after surgery.

There are many bonuses to the patient gained by using soft tissue lasers, not only does the laser cauterize the incisions and vaporize bacteria and infection; it also decreases post-operative pain because it seals the nerve endings. The types of lasers used is differentiated by the particular type of laser surgery and a variety of lasers are used depending on whether the dental surgeon is working on soft tissue like the gums or hard tissue like the teeth and jaw.

The dominant soft tissue laser has been and remains to be the carbon dioxide or CO2 laser due to its wavelength and almost perfect precision. The CO2 lasers wavelength is about 10,600 nanometers and is highly absorbed by in-vivo soft tissues which contain water. The use of CO2 lasers has grown in the past few years as modern technology makes these lasers far more affordable than their counterpart solid-state lasers which do use a wavelength highly absorbed by water in the range of 3,000 nanometers.

The wavelength of surgical lasers is not the only thing that differentiates them from each other, the light delivery system is one of the main differences between lasers, the laser delivery system can be flexible or articulated arm. There are also a number of other factors that contribute to a lasers surgical use.

The soft tissue laser has revolutionized a variety of surgeries making painful and uncomfortable post-operative healing much more bearable for the patients and the soft tissue laser is now used in a number of applications such as neurosurgery, general surgery and of courses dental surgeries.

Call Dr. Botbol today 416.800.2542 or fill out our quick contact form and one of our experienced Studio B Dental team members will contact you shortly!

 

 

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