Laser Dentistry

Before the introduction of laser dentistry, dentists used a scalpel, in order to perform a technique that forced them to cut into a patient's gums. Today, dentists have laid down their scalpels and have begun using a laser as a cutting tool. Patients now leave the dentist's office with a lot less blood in their mouth.

Gum tissue, like tissue at any point on the body can undergo a period of benign growth. A mole forms when benign tissue grows on the skin. When a section of gum undergoes benign growth, the resulting fibroid tumor is called a fibroma. Laser dentistry gives dentists an easy way to remove a fibroma.

Removal of a fibroid tumor from gum tissue goes by two different names - gingivectomy and gingivoplastomy. The dentist who performs either procedure does not stop with the removal of the unwanted gum tissue. The dentist also reshapes the gum line.

Fibroid tumors are not the only atypical growth that a dentist might discover in the area of a patient's mouth. A look at that area could reveal the presence of nipple-like projections, projections formed around a hair root. Oral papillectomy, performed using laser dentistry, can cut out any such nipples.

While laser dentistry facilitates the removal of unneeded gum tissue, not all of the less-desired tissue in a patient's mouth forms on the gums. A patient might have white patches on the lining of his or her mouth. Laser dentistry allows the dentist to do away with those patches.

Sometimes natural and normal tissue in a mouth can cause a dental patient to develop special problems. Sometimes the movement of a patient's mouth has been constrained by the existence of a fold of tissue. That fold of tissue might impede movement of the tongue or the lip.

Sometimes natural and normal gum tissue blocks the expected appearance of a molar, most often a wisdom tooth. In that case, the dentist needs to perform an opereulectomy. Laser dentistry comes to the aid of the dentist doing that procedure, the removal of mucosa from an unruptured tooth.

When a patient does not heed warnings about the need for good dental health, that patient can suffer the pain of an infected tooth. Such a patient might need a pulpotomy. By using laser dentistry, the dentist can remove the infected pulp tissue.

For a tooth with a more severe infection, the dentist might advise the completion of an apicoectomy. When a dentist performs an apicoectomy, he or she removes the infected tissue at the tip of the tooth's root. Yet the dentist also does more. He or she cuts away all of the surrounding infected tissue.

Laser dentistry aids the completion of simple tasks, like preparing teeth for the application of a sealant. Laser dentistry also facilitates the performance of more extensive dental work, such as excavation of the gum in order to form a root canal.

Even muscular malformations around the mouth can be changed from a vexing problem into a bad memory. Laser dentistry permits the achievement of that transformation.