Welcome to the forum! I’ll try and answer your questions below.

5.25 W 90/90 defocused, how close or how far to the tooth is defocused?

I stay far enough away that the laser isn’t marking or altering tooth surface.

Is this setting only for posterior teeth or will it work buccal and lingual of anterior teeth?

I use it both ant and posterior but in the anterior I may adjust downward depending on how deep a restoration I’m doing

What if the occlusal surface is mostly amalgam or composite for that matter, where do you aim the tip

I go right thru the composite .amalgam you need to avoid so you don’t fry a tip

after you begin the prep, what settings do you use if patient feels pain and you have entered dentin?

This is where magnification is so important, soon as the enamel is gone I drop down to 2.5 or lower depending on the patient. I think some of the others may drop to about 3.25

I have also heard of anesthesia being achieved using 1.5W buccally and lingually. Anyone use this ? with success? and what settings?

I think Bill Chen is doing this, in my hands I never got enough anesthetic effect to remove amalgams but he evidently is successful with it

I primarily use tapered tips, do I need to lower the 5.25W for anesthesia?

I don’t for the anesthesia part but do for the prepping

HOW BOUT DEM JETS!

didn’t know Winipeg still had a hockey team

No photos, but I used the diode for the first time to treat an aphthous ulcer – on my significant other / guinea pig. Got to him on the first day and the next day it was GONE. I think this will be a great service to the patients, especially on the little kids who absolutely stop eating when they get one of these.

Hi Jets fan……….I leave the defocussed stuff to Mark and Ron to tell you from the Biolase standpoint but today I did one with the erbium on an anterior tooth at around 4.8 watts (30 Hz and 160 mj ) at a distance of around 1.5 to 2 inches . (Its tough to tell under the scope) for 60 secs.

Lots of water and lots of air………..then went into the composite and patient felt Zero…….

Check out the erbium section I will post the photos.

Glenn

nice stuff glenn.. I too use expasyl after i trough with the laser….they work great together…..

Yesterday I had a young woman with extreme ypersensitivity on a #29. At .25W 0/0 I couldn’t get within an inch of the tooth. I held the tip outside the mouth , retracted the lip and attempted to apply laser energy in a very defocused mode. At that distance it was difficukt to tell if I was aimed at the correct part of the tooth, but she was able to tell me. I eventually anesthestized, lasered area and placed duraphat.
I also have one other patient who has the most severe hypersensitivity post perio treatment that I ever saw.
I attempted desensitizing teeth during my training session with zero success. After reading many posts online I have subsequently attempted treatment also with zero sucess.
These were two failures, I have had several sucess stories, but when I hear people talk of 100% sucess it makes me wonder.
Comments and sugestions appreciated.
GO JETS!