Our dentists at Ygnacio Dental in Walnut Creek, CA, are always looking for innovative and improved ways of offering our patients the best dentistry possible when it comes to dental care. Laser dentistry is one of the methods that can help achieve our goal.
Though lasers have been employed in dentistry since the early '90s, they have been greatly improved and enhanced to handle more and more oral issues and provide amazing smiles along the way.
What Are the Categories of Laser Dentistry?
Laser dentistry falls into two different categories: Hard tissue lasers and soft tissue lasers.
Hard Tissue Lasers
These lasers are exceptionally effective at precisely cutting through tooth enamel, making them a perfect option for extracting teeth and bone with great precision. This includes everything from contouring a tooth before receiving a dental crown and shearing down uneven tooth structures to repairing old dental fillings.
Some hard-tissue laser applications include:
- Identifying and removing cavities
- Tooth preparation for crowns and filling
- Sealing the roots of the tooth to treat tooth sensitivity
- Teeth whitening
Soft-Tissue Lasers
Diode lasers and YAG are better suited for treating soft tissue problems like gum disease. For instance, carbon dioxide lasers can quickly and safely cut away tissues infected by advanced periodontal disease, all the while not touching healthy tissue. The soft laser is also able to cauterize blood vessels and nerves.
Some soft-tissue laser applications include:
- Reshaping gummy smiles
- Crown lengthening
- Repairing soft tissue defects and congenital abnormalities
- Treating cold sores
- Removing benign tumors
- Removing tissue to treat sleep apnea
What Are the Benefits of Laser Dentistry?
Laser dentistry offers some pretty unique and amazing benefits over more conventional approaches. After all, our goal at Ygnacio Dental is to provide our patients with a comfortable and relaxing treatment. The following are some of the key benefits of laser dentistry:
- A faster healing time
- Reduced dental anxiety
- Stitches may not be required
- Less post-surgical bleeding
- Reduced pain
- Anesthesia may not be necessary
- Less invasive
- Lasers are sterile, reducing the chances for an infection
- Lasers are exceptionally precise, so very little healthy tissue has to be extracted
- Less need for stitches
- Prevent future oral problems
If you would like to learn more about laser dentistry, visit Ygnacio Dental, at 1766 Lacassie Ave # 101, Walnut Creek, CA 94596, or call us at (925) 280-2848.