Diode Laser

Elliott Family Dentistry is committed to providing a superior level of dental care to you, your family, and your friends. This commitment requires staying current on all the latest science, research, and technology available to provide the highest level of care. We have recently added a new procedure to help fight periodontal disease and keep your gums healthy.

We now know that approximately 80% of adults are affected with gum disease (periodontal disease). Periodontal disease is a bacterial infection in the pockets or space between your teeth and gums.  Periodontal disease has been linked to many systemic diseases such as; heart disease, obesity, hypertension diabetes, pulmonary disease, low birth weight, premature delivery, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, and pancreatic cancer, and the list continues to grow.

Diode Lasers are now being used safely, and comfortably to decontaminate the gum tissue and pockets around the teeth. The laser emits concentrated light energy, which kills unhealthy bacteria. This procedure is called Laser Bacterial Reduction (LBR).

The major benefits of LBR are:

TO REDUCE OR ELIMINATE BACTEREMIA – During the normal dental cleaning process and during the normal brushing and flossing, most patients will have some areas that may bleed. This allows bacteria that are present in all our mouths to flood into the bloodstream and sometimes settle in weakened areas of our bodies. As stated above, research shows that these bacteria that cause periodontal disease have now been linked to a growing number of other diseases. Lasers affect the bacteria directly and support the body’s healing response-taking the bacterial count from billions down to hundreds for up to 6 weeks.  Using the laser prior to your dental cleaning allows us to remove the bacteria and reduce the bacterial flow into your bloodstream

TO KILL PERIODONTAL DISEASE BACTERIA – And stop their infections before they cause destruction or loss of attachment around your teeth. Laser bacterial reduction is painless and normally takes about 10 minutes for the entire mouth. We highly recommend that you take advantage of this service as part of your cleaning appointment. Please ask any member of our dental team if you have any questions regarding this treatment.

OTHER:

-Sulcular Debridement: Just as conventional scaling and root planning remove biofilm and accretions from the hard tooth surface, sulcular debridement removes biofilm within the necrotic tissue of the pocket wall/ biofilm that has migrated into the gingival wall. The laser energy interacts strongly with inflamed tissue components and less strongly with healthy tissue.  This nonsurgical therapy uses very low settings and decontaminates rather than cuts tissue. It also induces biostimulation-promoting healing tissue

-Sensitive teeth (changing the viscosity of the fluid in the dentinal tubules) 

-Herpetic lesions: (killing viral particles, inactivating lesion, beginning healing and dormant process, cauterizes nerve ending, bio stimulating the area and it will immediately feel “numb”, shrink throughout the day, and crust over the next day.