Laser Dentistry
There are many dental techniques available to help you with your oral health today. Cornelius Dental Clinic believes this is good news and that it shows just how far dentistry has come over the years. Knowing about how you can use these things to help you feel more at ease about your smile’s aesthetics without much pain is beneficial. An example of this is laser dentistry.
Defining Laser Dentistry
One technique that’s been around for a while is laser dentistry. This is something that people who have gum (a.k.a. periodontal) disease are appreciative of because the “old way” of doing things was often considered painful. While scaling and root planing are nonsurgical methods that shouldn’t be painful, many people still say that they are painful.
Previously, these were the only ways to clean your teeth’s surface and roots that became exposed by the recession of your gumline. This is no longer true today. Now we can also use a procedure that’s known as laser dentistry. With this treatment, you have your tissues preserved and regenerated as you build new bone.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many people who’ve heard of laser dentistry before now. Nevertheless, it’s been around since 1990. This is when the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) first approved of lasers being used in the medical field. However, not until 1996 did they approve of it being used on your teeth and jawbone.
What To Expect When You Have Laser Dentistry
One of the first things you may ask when you find out that you have periodontal disease is if it’s treatable. Today, the FDA believes that the LANAP (laser assisted regeneration) protocol is a better treatment than traditional surgery. This is great news because this protocol is less painful.
Additionally, we’ve had more success using it, and patients appreciate the fact that it takes them less time to recover than with traditional therapy. You’ll often talk to patients who’ll tell you that they were comfortable throughout the entire process – to the point that local anesthesia is often unnecessary.
Many of these same patients will also report having fewer unpleasant side effects afterward too (e.g., numbness, tingling, soreness, needing sutures, bleeding, becoming inflamed). The reason for this is that pain-triggering vibrations aren’t involved here. This is also why we can perform several procedures that involve both your hard and soft tissues in just one visit to our office.
As you may well imagine, healing isn’t an issue here either. Nevertheless, we will still advise you to go on a liquid diet for the three days following your procedure. You’ll then want to limit yourself to soft foods for the following 11 days. This diet is proactive in helping to ensure that your gums will heal as they should.
If you feel like you may have gum disease and would like to discuss how laser dentistry could benefit you, we invite you to call Cornelius Dental Clinic at (971) 317-9323 today. We’ll schedule an appointment so you can come into our office and discuss this with us further.