Man I was up to my elbows in gators this morning. I was placing a Trans CD and extracting 4,6,7,8,9,10,12,& 13 on a 35 Y/O female. All of these had large carious leasion. Some had endo and several at the gum line. What bone she had, like concrete!! #4 had just enough to get a forcep on. It did not even begin to move.
One of those mornings when the anaesthic just did not do it for long enough nor did the Valium.
Several teeth fractured and looking for root tips was the order of the morning. All took more effort then I expected to remove.
I remembered Glenn”s case where he ditched around a root and then extracted it. Saved my butt today using the laser. Going after the root tips was easy . A great deal more control removing the bone around the root tip then using a burr. Visiblity was far better. Troughing prior to elevating also made it easier. It was still tough ! #12 was the last to be extracted and I could not get her numb. Pretty much had pushed the max of marcaine, septocaine I could use. Ended up numbing the tooth with the laser. Then doing an access and now placing the septocaine in the pulp. Party over extracted 12 and of course left the buccal root tip. When you are having fun it never stops. It came out pretty easy.

Having a laser sure makes you a better dentist! OOPS I mean having a laser sure can make dentistry easier.

Then again when I finished with the patient she wanted to know why I did not go ahead and ext #32!!!!!!

David