Ultra-short laser pulses in dentistry - a solution towards painless dental treatment?

摘要

Within the last years, modern ultra-short pulse lasers have successfully proven their potential for application in medical tissue treatment in many respects. In dentistry, overheating of the pulp and induction of microcracks are usually among the most problematic issues which can be solved in this way. An additional benefit can be seen in the possibility of plasma emission spectroscopy as a means of feedback. Up till now it was shown by many authors that the application of picosecond or femtosecond pulses allows to perform ablation with very low damaging potential also fitting to the special physiological requirements. Beside the short interaction time with the irradiated biological matter, lateral scanning of ultra-short pulses following optimized algorithms turned out to be crucial for ablating cavities with the required quality and size, a finding which we also believe to be valid for dental restoration materials. Additionally, out of practical reasons, scanning is necessary to treat larger volumes than just the focal spots typically having dimensions on the order of more than 1 mm~3, thereby allowing to realize an "optical drill".