H folks: As this forum has progressed we are dealing with more and more topics which are newer and of course of interest to those who have had the laser for a long period of time.

For alot of the newer members this might be overload and there is a desire to learn the simple things with the laser.

Here is a simple case of using the Delight Laser without anesthetic to remove a composite resin on the facial which was around 3 mm deep.

I used 30 Hz and 180 mj to “numb” the tooth up a little and desensitize them in a defocussed mode where I was about 10 mm away and pointing the laser with water on at the facial surface. After 2 minutes I used the same energy on the tooth. After a couple of minutes I increased the settings to its maximum for me is 25Hz and 240 mj which is 6 watts for the Biolase folks.

I use two movements to remove the composite, a plunging action straight up and down moving into almost contact and then about 2 mm away and then in addition some very small circular movements changing the angle of attack alot.

Patient didnt feel much, and after I was done I noticed that the tissue was equigingival with the prep so we then removed tissue with a setting of 30Hz and 35 mj without water. I had placed a small piece of black sillk cord to protect deeper structures and to act as a marker for my prep on the tissue.

After planing or shaving the tissue away there was a little bit of bleeding which is common in inflamed areas if you use the erbium on soft tissue, not so if you use a dedicated soft tissue laser like a diode or NdYag.

In this case I am doing some testing for J. Morita on their new One Up F bond , which is a self etching bond with fluorided release that goes onto the tooth pink and once cured is clear.

Their composite Palfique Estelite was used (A3.5) which was the darkest shade they had in the trial kit and it was nice to handle (spherical in size).

The final result was ok and an improvement on what was there before.

Hope this helps those of you just starting out to see what kind of preps can be often done without anesthetic.

Cya

Glenn