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ePaper created 2017-10-05, 09:25:28 | version 1.38.0
laser_research Modification of tooth neck dentin with a diode laser for desensitisation Author_Dr Ute Ulrike Botzenhart, Germany Cervical dentin hypersensitivity is a common phenomenon of discomfort, which affects an increasing number of young adults. [PICTURE: ©VLADIMIR GJORGIEV] _Cervical dentin hypersensitivity is a common phenomenon and affects an increasing number of young adults. Today, more than 30 % of the adult population in industrialised nations is affected, but the number of unreported cases is presumably much higher and treatment demand is increasing.1 Patients who are affected report intense and sharp pain of short duration during eating or dental hy- giene, for example, that cannot be ascribed to any other form of dental defect or disease.2 Dentine hy- persensitivity is associated with exposure of dentine at the cemento-enamel junction and can be ex- plained by the combined effect of several aetiolog- ical factors, such as erosion, abrasion and attrition with erosion as the main factor.3, 4 Other factors, like microbiological invasion of exposed dentinal tubules with accompanying inflammation of pulpal tissue, functional overload, traumatic toothbrush- ing and whitening of vital teeth, also appear to be in- volved.5, 6 To date, the commonly accepted theory of pain transmission is still Brännström’s hydrodynamic theory.7 It states that chemical, mechanical, osmotic and thermal stimuli induce fluid flow in exposed dentinal tubules, activation of mechanoreceptors at the pulp–dentine border and finally activation of pain fibres. The structure of the dentinal surface is 38 3_2017 38 laser