Also remember to pull the fiber trough the tissue and not push. It is a glass fiber.
Another point is after initiating the tip , activate it for a few seconds before toughing the tissue..

Nick…. great question… NO! Well, Yes ! That is most of the time…
A bloodly field for crown and bridge impressions is not something that anyone wants to deal with at the time of impressions. I try very hard not to have to deal with this before the prep date. That is healthy tissue prior to prep date. Healthy tissue does not bleed and it now is a non-issue.. I also like high -dry preps. Margins slightly above or at the gingiva. Sometimes this means a preLANAP or CL sx with temps.. Sometimes it just preCHX rinses and stepped up homecare by the patient.

Then again I live in the real world of 85 and 90 Y/O patients with med lists 2 pages long….

That said I like the diode for healthy tissue if I need to trough. It is great to lightly take that inter lining out of the sulcus without droping the height of the tissue. I have yet to get shrinkage on a think tissue biotype. Thin tissue is another matter. If it is thin with a large zarea of attached gingiva, if I get shrinkage it so far has always returned. If the zone of attachment is thin..I am stuck with shrinkage.
With the diode on a thin tissue patient if there is more then minor bleeding. I’ll try using the diode unintiated and out of contact. Sometimes it works, other times it just starts to bleed as soon as the impression materials touches the clott… Because of the tissue being thin if this does not work I rule out using the diode. It will require too much energy to control the bleeding. Shrinkage or post op discomfort risk increase greatly.. So I’ll try chemical stuff , cord or whatever… depending on the esthics of the case. High esthic case we backup and punt and deal with the problem of why we have bleeding to begin with.. Thick tissue I will get more aggressive with the diode. The tissue can handle more energy without colateral damage. However, I do this with caution. If it is not working just don’t keep puting more energy into it… So if this is a case that for some reason I am stuck and need to take an impression and it just wants to bleed just looking at it— the diode is not the choice.. The same with the MD in Softtissue mode. just won’t do it with this type of case.
Now the periolase is another matter. It seems that I can do more difficult cases with it.. It still has it limits and this maybe that I am still a newbie.

So, simple cases the MD Soft tissue mode works, step it up and the diode will work, a bit more of a problem and the Periolase is the answer. I will say I can stop bleeder far easier and faster with the periolase ( With the help of DEL via an early morning phone call). The problem is with a bleeder the clot starts to be a problem with have access to the margin. Disrupt the clot and the problem starts over.

Hoped that helped, the antihistamines have kicked in so
I may not be too clear tonight

David

Hi,
You can try troughing around the margins first;esp in subgingival areas. There will be less chance of trauma on the tissue by the bur. Much easier to control the soft tissue first than after tissue traumatised.
Ken

Hi Tom,
It’s the same problem for deep class II cavities.
Best open up the box and gain access to the interproximal gingiva, control the soft tissue , then define the floor of the box.
Hope this helps.
Ken

Recently I did crown lengthening the old fashioned way- with a BP blade- on a young (20’s) woman. She didn’t heal normally due to her daily dilantin dose for control of seizures from years ago. At a post op visit I finally had my Odyssey 2 G and thought OK, I can deal with this and proceeded to ablate away the hypertpophic granulomatous tissue which had formed interproximately. The tissue was hemmorhagic and bulbous. It looked good when I finished but a week later she returned for another post op and the tissue had regrown and was more swollen and hemmorhagic than before I touched it. I have her on Peridex  and she’s to see her MD who had told her previously he thought he would take her off dilantin now as he felt it was no longer needed. I was disappointed the tissue didn’t look much better at one week and I’ll have to ablate the tissue once again once she’s off dilantin before I can get the impression. Any suggestions?