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Lasers for Pain-free Dentistry
Chris writes "Australian researchers say that frequency-doubling a femtosecond laser is the way to pain-free dentistry. Using two different Ti:sapphire sources it was found that the 400 nm second harmonic gave the best results. Lasers have long been touted as pain-free replacements for the dreaded dentist's drill. However, the hardness of dental tissue has demanded high-energy pulses for drilling. Previous attempts have resulted in unacceptably slow removal of tooth enamel, and have also damaged teeth. These previous efforts caused shock waves, vibrations and also heated up the tooth's softer tissue, causing significant pain to the patient. Because femtosecond pulses are so short, heat conduction effects are virtually eliminated."
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Dentist: What?
Patient: I 'ed, doo oo ekek e to tahk!
Dentist: I can't understand you.
Patient: Tak jis kra ow o ny nouh.
Dentist: Oh, okay (removes stuff from patient's mouth.)
Patient: I said, how do you expect me to talk with this crap in my mouth?
Dentist: I don't, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
So this is how Aussies do dentistry. While it's swell and all to be able to painlessly zap a hole in my tooth, it doesn't eliminate the fact that you'd be zapping a hole in my tooth.
The Brits, on the other hand, have gone for a no-hole approach. They're using a new treatment called Healozone, which involves fitting a rubber cap over the tooth and then smothering it with ozone, which eliminates all the bacteria in a matter of seconds. Painless, and much more cool.
--
The angel in the oatmeal.
The problem isn't the drill, or at least it never was for me. Sure, the drill is uncomfortable, afterall the dentist is generally pushing the thing around violently inside your tooth. That's annoying. It's the nerves that are the problem! First of all, there's the shot of novocaine (which is quite traumatic in and of itself). Then there's the drilling. Oops we hit the nerve (like the laser will never do the same thing?) and the novocaine wasn't as strong as we'd have liked. Time to do another shot of novocaine RIGHT DOWN THE CENTER OF YOUR NOW OPEN TOOTH (yes I did go through that). HOLY FUCK THAT HURT. I can't feel anything now.
Drill or no drill, it's the nerve stupid!
Honest politicians and the paperless office.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
Perhaps you forgot, but when you got numbed up, do you remember the huge fucking needle the dentist stuck in your mouth? And he said "Little pinch" and it felt like somebody stabbed you with a dagger in the cheek?
Lasers == no more big fucking needles
sounds like an improvement to me
Great, now I'll have a frickin' laser beam attached to my head...
...if you can make a Tesla coil out of an old TV, can you make a few slight modifications to a CD-ROM to make a dentist's (finger quotes) laser...?
Come to think of it, Doctor Evil does look slightly like my dentist. Time to run, methinks.
Like car accidents, most hardware problems are due to driver error.
My dentist has a laser, he loves it.
My tooth was cracked. To have the crown fitted properly, because of the tooth shape and the deep crack, he needed to get below the gum line. There was sort of an indentation in the shape of the tooth, so my gum was coming over where the cap needed to go. My dentist used his laser to cut back the gum and importantly - cauterize - the cut at the same time. That allowed him to continue the work, it didn't hurt for me. My dentist says he couldn't have done it as quickly or easily, that it would have been quite difficult, if he hadn't had his new laser.
I'm a big fan of brushing and flossing also. Who would have thought that a bagel would be so bad (bagels are a leading cause of cracked teeth - don't eat stale bagels).
I can't give you a detailed comparison. I'll tell you what I've learned so far though.
First, some background. My education is physics and mathematics. My wife is a dentist. About two years ago, I attended a lecture by a visiting professor who was doing work building things like dental lasers -- the so-called sub-picosecond-pulse lasers. It was an excellent lecture and he really knew his stuff. Naturally, I came home all abuzz, and started talking to my wife about it.
It turns out that many dentists think the lasers may be cool and all, but they'll probably never use them for drilling out teeth. Cutting softer tissue, sure, but not drilling the actual tooth. She says that a huge part of the drilling process is feel. While you're drilling, you can feel when you're drilling softer, infected enamel and dentin versus hard, clean tooth. Taking that feel away would severely compromise her ability to be sure that she's drilled out all the decay, without drilling out too much of the tooth and possibly compromising its integrity or perforating into the pulp.
My wife has left for her office already, so I can't get her to comment directly. I'd love to hear from any other dentists, though. What do you think? Is feel really that important when you're drilling?
In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it. -John Archibald Wheeler
LEIA: No! My bicuspid is fine. It has no cavities. You can't possibly...
DR. TARKIN: You would prefer another target? Some plaque perhaps? Then name the tooth!
Dr. Tarkin waves menacingly toward Leia.
DR. TARKIN: I grow tired of asking this. So it'll be the last time. Where is the cavity?
LEIA: (softly) Left back molar.
Leia lowers her head.
LEIA: It's on my left back molar.
DR. TARKIN: There. You see Darth Dentist, she can be reasonable. Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready.
LEIA: What?
DR. TARKIN: You're far too trusting. Your back molar is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don't worry. We will deal with your cavity soon enough.