<title>Low-intensity laser radiation usage in dentistry</title>

Abstract

Low energy laser radiation is widely used in different areas of medicine including dentistry. The main biologic laser radiation action mechanism is its multiangle influence on disease pathogenesis. In clinical practice, the most widely spread equipment is based on helium-neon laser (HNL) with the wavelength of 630 nm. HNL is able to cause different therapeutic effects depending on power flow density, i.e. antiinflammatory, microcirculation stimulation, metabolic, proliferative tissue activity, analgetic. However, considering specific features of oral cavity and parodontium disease pathogenesis, it is necessary to point to a few weak features of HNL. For example, HNL in therapeutic doses has insufficient antimicrobial and antiinflammatory effects; it just decreases microflora pathogeneity in the oral cavity. HNL radiation has poor lithic effect (for example, during the period of debridement) [Prokhonchukov, Zhizhina, Lapidus, 1985]. Regardless of the apparent positive HNL effect following extracorporal or intravascular blood irradiation in cases of generalized acute infection, this method is not used often in dentistry. Therefore, there is a necessity to search for some other more adequate laser irradiation sources which would solve prophylaxis and treatment problems for the most widely spread dental diseases such as caries, parodontosis. As far as a prior aim of laser radiation is to elicit different therapeutic effects, depending on laser beam intensity, the main principle of the treatment should be to vary this as well as wavelength values at different stages of development, duration and pathologic process profylaxis. In order to optimize efficiency of light biostimulators in dentistry it seems of importance to consider theoretical prerequisites of photobiological activation processes and specific activity of different light wavelength effects.