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Lasers the New Frontier for Implant Dentistry

By: Kingston J. Amadan

It wasn’t long ago that the only option for dental implant surgery relied solely on skill and scalpel. While few would argue that the implant techniques used by dentistry professionals have yielded far more positive than negative results, precision has always been a point of contention. Unfortunately, when one is dealing with a small space no more than a few square millimeters, precision takes on a whole new level of importance.
Enter the laser, or more specifically, a variety of lasers designed to work on hard, soft or both types of tissue. While lasers and laser surgery are nothing new or novel, their use in implant surgery is only now becoming more widespread. There are hundreds of practitioners worldwide using both Diode and Er,Cr;YSGG lasers, the latter standing for “Erbium, Chromium; Yttrium, Scandium, Gallium, Garnet”, or a combination of both. Outside of national agencies that govern the safety protocols and best practices of lasers in medicine, organizations such as the Academy of Laser Dentistry and Laser Institute of America have become a key part of the dissemination of knowledge surrounding their specific use in the field of dentistry.
Lasers offer many benefits that traditional scalpel surgery cannot, with virtually no detriments. One of the main concerns when performing dental implant surgery is minimal invasiveness to surrounding tissues. Laser surgery provides a level of precision never before available, utilizing tomography scanning techniques to create customized and acutely accurate surgical stints that allow for precision guidance of the beam. This allows surgeons to target only the tissue that needs to be removed with a decreased possibility of damage to adjacent areas.
Both the increased precision that lasers allow and the decreased inflammatory response as a result of their use translates into faster recovery times. The use of lasers, especially in soft tissue removal, promotes the body’s release of anti-inflammatory enzymes that can greatly inhibit localized swelling. Patients will experience less overall discomfort than with more traditional surgical methods and are far less likely to develop an infection due to the procedure.
Lasers are expensive, and as such, can add to the cost of dental implant procedures. Considering the many uses of lasers in general dentistry, however, they are fast becoming the rule as opposed to the exception. As more and more dental professionals move toward laser enhanced surgery, the cost will decrease. For patients, this means a better quality of surgery without the associated expense attached to a less well known procedural method.

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