Hi Folks: Here is a case that was completed during a hands on in our office on Friday.

THe patient was a mid thirties year old male who notice a lump in his lower right lip that grew and shrank over time but lately was bigger and becoming noticeable when he smiled. Palpation revealed a fluctuant lump which required removal. Suspicion of a mucocoele was my diagnosis.

I used the Er:YAG hard tissue laser and made an incision with the DeLight at 30Hz and 60 mj (1.8 watts) without water. Anesthetic was placed (20% of one carpule) and EMLA used before the anesthetic.

I was surprised at how right away the first mucocoele popped into view. I grasped it with a hemostat and easily dissected it away from the lip. Using the soft tissue tip to dissect around 2 more similarly enlarged glands we closed with 3 sutures (6-0) and will see the patient later on this week.

Quick and the visibility was excellent without much bleeding which really made it easy to see where the offending enlarged minor salivary glands were located. Oh sure a blade works well but the attendees mentioned how much more bleeding they have with blades and how much more difficult it is to dissect around the mucocoele it is with a scalpel.

Just wanted to show a case for you.

Glenn