Soft Tissue Lasers

Hilary Deiter, RDH

 -By Hilary Deiter, RDH

Hilary is a Hygienist & Periodontal Therapist with The Oaks Dental Center, Ltd.

Why are soft tissue lasers useful in maintaining a healthy mouth? There are many advantages of having a soft tissue laser in the dental office. Lasers are very precise, they have a fast healing time, they are able to sterilize gum tissue, and are less painful than an average surgical procedure.

Most of the laser procedures that I use are to improve gum health. For example:

A Laser Bacterial Reduction (LBR) procedure is used to reduce or eliminate bacteria in your mouth by a count of 1,000,000,000 down to 100. It also can reduce cross-contamination from infected gum tissue to healthy gum tissue. This helps in decreasing bleeding and inflammation.

Laser Assisted Periodontal Therapy (LAPT) is used for patients with periodontal disease. The laser removes the infected tissue from the periodontal pocket so healthy tissue can grow and tighten around the tooth causing the pocket to shrink. It also activates bone cells so bone is able to grow back in an area where it was once lost.

Another procedure that I use the laser for is eliminating and increasing the healing time of cold sores and canker sores. This procedure requires no anesthetic and the patient is quite comfortable. The laser eliminates the cold sore by killing the active virus before the sore even appears on the tissue. The patient will start to feel results as they are lying in the dental chair.

The more we know about the danger of the tissue-invasive bacteria responsible for gum disease the more important it is for the dental profession to seek out and embrace new procedures of bacterial destruction.