Dental Library

Focus on Comfort: Dental Lasers

Laser Dentistry - 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.

back to library

19 Legion Drive • Bergenfield, NJ 07621
201-384-2425 phone • 201-384-5642 fax

©2003 Washington Dental Associates
Site designed and maintained by TNT Dental