Abstract
Caries – the most frequent cause for dental surgery – still is mainly treated with conventional mechanical drills, although lasers have meanwhile been successfully applied to various clinical disciplines. Since ultrashort laser pulses with sufficient pulse energies have only been available at low repetition rates (< 1 kHz) in recent decades, solely continuous wave radiation or pulse durations longer than thermal diffusion processes were applied with the result of severe thermal damage and pain. In this report we present results on dental tissue ablation obtained with a novel thin disk Yb:KYW regenerative amplifier system that does not require chirped pulse amplification (CPA). We show that femtosecond laser pulses provide us with today’s optimal tool to treat dental decay in an acceptable time, in an excellent quality, and with unsurpassed caries selectivity. The superior quality is a result of the non-thermal laser-tooth interaction. All our results are based on environmental scanning electron microscopy.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
L. Goldman, P. Hornby, R. Mayer, B. Goldman: Nature 203, 417 (1964)
R.H. Stern, R.F. Sognnaes: J. Dent. Res. 43, 873 (1964)
R.H. Stern, J. Vahl, R. Sognnaes: J. Dent. Res. 51, 455 (1972)
R. Hibst, U. Keller: Lasers Surg. Med. 9, 338 (1989)
U. Keller, R. Hibst: Lasers Surg. Med. 9, 345 (1989)
T. Kayano, S. Ochiai, K. Kiyono, H. Yamamoto, S. Nakajima, T. Mochizuki: J. Stomat. Soc. Jap. 56, 381 (1989)
M.H. Niemz, L. Eisenmann, T. Pioch: Schweiz. Monatsschr. Zahnmed. 103, 1252 (1993)
M. Frentzen, H.J. Koort, O. Kermani, M.U. Dardenne: Dtsch. Zahnärztl. Z. 44, 431 (1989)
F. Sanchez, A.J. Espana Tost, J.L. Morenza: Lasers Surg. Med. 21, 474 (1997)
E. Steiger, N. Maurer, G. Geisel: Proc. SPIE 1880, 149 (1993)
P. Rechmann, T. Hennig, U. von den Hoff, R. Kaufmann: Proc. SPIE 1880, 235 (1993)
M. Frentzen, C. Winkelstraeter, H. van Benthem, H.J. Koort: Dtsch. Zahnärztl. Z. 49, 166 (1994)
M.H. Niemz: Laser-Tissue Interactions – Fundamentals and Applications (Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 3rd edn. 2003)
M.H. Niemz: Appl. Phys. B 58, 273 (1994)
M.H. Niemz: J. Dent. Res. 74, 1194 (1995)
L. Willms, A. Herschel, M.H. Niemz, T. Pioch: Lasers Med. Sci. 11, 45 (1996)
C. Momma, S. Nolte, H. Welling, A. Kasenbacher, M.H. Niemz: Laser in Medicine (Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 1997)
M.H. Niemz: Proc. SPIE 3255, 84 (1998)
J. Serbin, T. Bauer, C. Fallnich, A. Kasenbacher, W.H. Arnold: Appl. Surf. Sci. 197–198, 737 (2002)
D. Strickland, G. Mourou: Opt. Commun. 56, 219 (1985)
A. Beyertt, D. Müller, D. Nickel, A. Giesen: OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics 83, 407 (Optical Society of America, Washington DC, 2003)
A. Giesen, H. Hügel, A. Voss, K. Wittig, U. Brauch, H. Opower: Appl. Phys. B 58, 365 (1994)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
PACS
42.62.–b; 06.60.Jn; 82.80.–d
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Niemz, M., Kasenbacher, A., Strassl, M. et al. Tooth ablation using a CPA-free thin disk femtosecond laser system. Appl. Phys. B 79, 269–271 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-004-1579-2
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-004-1579-2