New carbon dioxide laser treatment on artificial caries progression in dentin

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that pretreatment of dental enamel by specific carbon dioxide laser conditions inhibited progression of caries-like lesion progression in vitro. The aim of the present study was to determine whether irradiation by a new shorter pulse carbon dioxide laser would inhibit caries-like lesion progression in dentin. Dentin blocks were irradiated at 9.6 μm with a 20 μs pulse duration laser using overlapping spots, 5 pulses per spot, and fluences from 0.2 - 1.0 J/cm 2 . The blocks were subjected to pH-cycling to produce subsurface caries-like lesions including control groups, one with daily fluoride treatments. Lesion severity was assessed by cross-sectional microhardness measurement. Neither low fluences nor fluences in the optimum range for enamel significantly (p>0.05) inhibited lesion progression in dentin in this model. Only the fluoride treatment group significantly (p<0.05, ANOVA/Tukey) inhibited lesion progression by 33%.