How Laser Dentistry Can Ease Children’s Anxieties

There are two prime components to ensuring oral health remains good throughout your lifetime. The first is the thorough and consistent use of dental hygiene products. You’ll need to brush twice daily, use mouthwash consistently, and floss at least once daily to keep streptococcus mutans at bay. However, this routine represents only half of what you need to ensure your smile stays healthy and looks great. Twice a year, it’s essential that you pay a visit to your dentist for a thorough cleaning. Those who struggle with dental anxiety often find this difficult to maintain, and the persistent whining sound of the dental drill plays a large part in it. Thankfully, recent dental innovations have included the dental laser, making that incessant whine a thing of the past.

Reshaping Dental Care With Laser Dentistry

Dental drills haven’t seen much innovation over the past century. The underlying concept has always remained the same. A drill bit is rotated using some power source, be it clockwork, electric, or pneumatic, and removes unwanted material on the teeth. While these were notable improvements over the hammers and chisels used previously, they still led to an uncomfortable or painful experience for the patient. It wasn’t until recently that modern dentistry took a step forward by introducing the dental laser. This powerful light-based apparatus has eliminated the dental drill’s whine from clinics everywhere.

These new innovations bring notable benefits to the practice of dental medicine:

• Precision Dentistry – Over the billions of procedures that have been performed using the dental drill and the countless improvements that have been made, one problem stood out. The drilling mechanism was never as precise as it needed to target only unhealthy tissue. There was always some sacrifice of healthy tissue in a procedure. The dental laser is unerringly precise, leaving healthy tissue behind while eliminating decay and infection.
• Minimized Discomfort – There is another significant benefit to dental lasers as well. The process it uses disintegrates decayed tissue instantly. In addition to leaving healthy tissue unharmed, it also closes any wound it creates as soon as it makes it. This means less discomfort for the patient and reduced treatment times.
• Speedy Recovery – The cauterizing nature of the dental laser often makes stitches and anesthetics unnecessary. In addition, the reduced amount of damage to healthy tissue ensures that recovery times are faster than ever. Overall, there’s less time in the dental chair, less discomfort, and fast recoveries, changing the face of dentistry.

These benefits have led to traditional dental drills being rapidly phased out of modern clinics. There’s no procedure they can perform that the dental drill can’t do faster and more effectively. Further, those suffering from dental anxiety aggravated by the whine of the drill find their experiences improved. The dental laser gives off a soothing, pulsing sound during operation that can relax some patients.

Ask Your Dentist About Laser Dentistry

Clinics worldwide have begun to implement dental lasers in their practice. As they do, research continues on how these tools can be used to improve other dental procedures. Periodontitis and gingivitis have both had dental laser treatments developed for them. They’re also being used in updating dental implant surgeries.