Treatment Options

Laser Treatment

LASER, an acronym for Light Amplification Emission of Radiation.

Treating periodontal disease with laser technology is the very best that modern dentistry has to offer. The dental laser has been shown to eliminate periodontal infection (by reducing bacterial presence and decreasing the level of inflammation) and stimulate repair of the damaged gum and bone.

Treating periodontal infection in this way has been shown to lower your risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and low birth weight babies. Even more, laser periodontal therapy has none of the drawbacks of the older therapies. It’s comfortable, doesn’t cause gum recession, has fewer treatment complications, reduced swelling, faster healing, reduced chance of infection, no bleeding from an incision, and less need for sutures.

Our office uses the Odyssey 2.4G Diode Soft Tissue Laser and it will deliver a specific amount of  power through the fiber tip, always using the lowest amount of power necessary to reach treatment objectives.

The diode laser has shown tremendous initial promise for managing the bacteriological infection by enabling practitioners to adopt a different treatment approach. The laser is beneficial for its bactericidal  effects as well as reducing inflammation in periodontal pockets when combined with ultrasonics and hand scaling.

The laser’s energy produces an effect that appears to allow the body to repair itself. This is a real benefit for the patient, as hygienists are not causing tissue to migrate down the roots of the teeth; rather, they are maintaining the natural symmetry of the tissue. Given that the tissue heals itself from the bottom up, the pockets are reduced not through migration or shrinkage but through true healing, so less pain and faster healing results.

Once the treatment plan has been established based on the extent of the patient’s infection, the objective is to restore the patient to health over the course of multiple appointments.

Some of the other procedures that can be performed with a soft tissue laser include:

• removal and reshaping of diseased gum tissue
• treatment of deep gum pockets that contain bacteria
• crown lengthening
• preparation for dental impressions
• sculpting prior to dental implants
• treatment of ulcers in the mouth
• biopsy and removal of benign oral tumors
• abscessed tooth care
• frenum release
• exposing new teeth, including wisdom teeth, that are slow to erupt through the gum tissue
• treating overgrowth of gum tissue
• lessening the pain of cold sores and fever blisters/canker sores and shortening the duration of these flare ups
• useful in gum line reshaping in cosmetic procedures