Treating occlusal pit and fissure surfaces by IR laser irradiation

Douglas A. Young; Daniel Fried; John D. B. Featherstone

doi:10.1117/12.380835

24 March 2000 Treating occlusal pit and fissure surfaces by IR laser irradiation

Douglas A. Young, Daniel Fried, John D. B. Featherstone

Proceedings Volume 3910, Lasers in Dentistry VI; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.380835
Event: BiOS 2000 The International Symposium on Biomedical Optics, 2000, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Pit and fissure caries remain the most common form of caries and are difficult to detect and prevent. In this study, the hypothesis that specific IR laser irradiation used for ablation of the occlusal pits and fissures can also inhibit caries progression was tested. To do so on the pits and fissures, higher fluences were used to test this hypothesis than were used by previous studies. Occlusal pits and fissures of extracted human teeth were ablated with Er:YAG ((lambda) equals 2.94 micrometer, 200 microsecond pulse duration), Er:YSGG ((lambda) equals 2.79 micrometer, 200 microseconds pd) or CO₂ ((lambda) equals 9.6 micrometer, 5 microseconds pd) laser irradiation (n equals 10 per group). 'Enamelplasty' performed on non-irradiated pits and fissures using a high- speed 1/4 round carbide bur served as the control group. After laser ablation in the test groups and enamelplasty in the control group, artificial caries-like lesions were created by subjecting the teeth to pH cycling. Thin (80 micrometer) sections were then analyzed utilizing polarized light microscopy and transverse microradiography (TMR). The relative mineral loss, or (Delta) Z values, measured in vol.% x micrometers and (standard deviations) were 2074(929) for bur control, 1053(787) for Er:YAG, 583(261) for Er:YSGG, and 1047(416) for CO₂ groups. Laser ablation of the pits and fissures resulted in a 50% inhibition of caries progression for both CO₂ and Er:YAG and 72% caries inhibition for Er:YSGG. All laser groups were significantly superior in caries inhibition at a statistical level of P less than 0.01 compared to the control (bur) group. Results indicate that these lasers can not only conservatively prepare pits and fissures but, in addition, can have marked caries preventive effects.

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Douglas A. Young, Daniel Fried, and John D. B. Featherstone "Treating occlusal pit and fissure surfaces by IR laser irradiation", Proc. SPIE 3910, Lasers in Dentistry VI, (24 March 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.380835

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