TREATMENT OF DENTAL CARIES BY ER:YAG LASER IN CHILDREN

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Journal of the Korean Academy of Pediatric Dentistry 2000;27(4):558-563.
Published online November 30, 2000.

TREATMENT OF DENTAL CARIES BY ER:YAG LASER IN CHILDREN

소아 환자에서 Er:YAG Laser를 이용한 우식 병소의 처치

장은영, 이상호, 이창섭

조선대학교 치과대학 소아치과학교실, 구강생물학연구소

Abstract

The lasers have been used in dentistry for more than 30 years and the application of lasers for drilling dental hard tissue has been investigated since the early developement of lasers. Recently, the Er:YAG laser was invented for hard tissue ablation. The Er:YAG laser, having a wavelength of 2.94um, is highly absorbed in both water and hydroxiapatite, leading to a very effective material for hard tissue removal by bursting off the solid tissue component that is, enamel and dentin are removed by the Er :YAG laser by water vaporization and microexplosion, without any melting of inorganic tissues. Therefore, the Er:YAG laser produced round craters with well defined margins and the surrounding tissues had no cracks and no charring. When used for cavity preparation, pulpal damage should not occur if hear buildup is minimized by careful selection of exposure parameters and by use of a water spray. The present study demonstrated that the Er:YAG laser cut the tooth substance adequately for composite resin restoration, without having undesirable side effects such as harmful effects on the pulp, discoloration or cracking etc. Also, the child patients were well cooperative during laser treatment mainly because of little noise, lesser vibration and minimal pain compared to conventional means of cavity preparation.

Key Words: Er:YAG laser, Hard tissue ablation, Microexplosion, Water spray, Laser parameter