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ePaper created 2018-03-14, 11:21:34 | version 1.38.0
industry | Fig. 3: Periodontal probe in the treated area. There is no tissue depth at all, and the patient is able to maintain her oral health. Fig. 4: Area healed, aesthetically blended. confirmed through oral examination. The 31-year-old female had neat clothes and clean, well-maintained hands and nails. She related how difficult the local area was to clean, describing that cleaning efforts hurt and caused bleeding, especially when she flossed. The local area also didn’t look clean visually, creating an unaes- thetic appearance. There was a break in the continuity of the smooth appearance of the gingiva, causing the tooth to appear uneven. As mentioned, there are and have been several laser devices available for years for use in a variety of soft- tissue dental procedures. All have the ability to achieve desired results when the practitioner is experienced with the technology and procedure. Some laser devices have the adaptability for different strengths, but, when used correctly, all can treat soft-tissue disease with desired results. To correct this particular defect, we had the choice of using a sharp, cold-steel instrument or a laser. We opted to use a diode laser, which is easy to use and causes no bleeding in the wound, thus avoiding the need for a peri- odontal dressing that would be necessary to cover the resulting wound if cold steel was used. The results documented in Figures 1 to 4 were achieved using the Picasso (AMD LASERS) diode la- ser exclusively. Instead of being heavy or bulky, it is portable and lightweight. It can be moved easily into each operatory as needed, removing the need to pur- chase separate units for each operatory. Also, the fibre tips are disposable, ensuring sterility. A key factor for me in choosing the AMD Picasso laser was cost. Traditionally, costs for soft-tissue la- sers seemed relatively high, ranging from $12,000 to $120,000. This light, portable system ranges from $2,000 to $2,500. In my experience, the system not only achieves results comparable to the more expen- sive systems, but it does so with ease. In this particular case, a diode laser was used. The result was an aesthetic, smooth, homogeneous co- lour background that blends unnoticed with its en- vironment and enables oral hygiene techniques that keep the area healthy, aesthetically pleasing and eas- ily maintainable. Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Case 2 This second case demonstrates use of the diode la- ser in an acutely inflamed hyperplastic situation in the maxillary anterior of a male teenager who desired a more pleasing smile (Fig. 5). Initially, the patient visited an or- thodontist to seek treatment of his rotated, overlapping dentition and red, acutely oedematous, easily bleeding tissue. The orthodontist advised the patient that he could Fig. 5: In case 2, initial labial view of teenage patient with inflamed hyper- plastic gingiva of maxillary anteriors. Fig. 5 17 1 2018