The Use of Lasers for Endodontic Applicationsin Dentistry

Abstract

Summary Several applications of lasers in clinical procedures for dental hard tissues are either currently in practice or being developed since newer wavelengths as well as different methods and delivery systems are being applied in the field of dentistry. In endodontic therapy lasers have been used as treatment coadjuvant with reference to both, low intensity laser therapy (LILT) and high intensity laser treatment (HILT) to increase the success rate of the clinical procedures. The purpose of this article is to review in vitro studies and clinical procedures for the use of lasers in endodontics. Low intensity laser therapy has the ability to produce analgesic, anti-inflammatory and biomodulation effects on the irradiated soft tissue thereby improving the wound healing process and giving the patient a better condition of the postoperative experience. High intensity laser irradiation on soft tissue in a defocused mode could have similar effects to low intensity laser therapy. Depending on the wavelength, high intensity laser irradiation may be used on hard dental tissues such as on the root canal dentine or on the dentine cut surface after apicoectomy to produce structural morphological changes, to remove the smear layer, to melt and recrystallize dentine or to expose dentinal tubules. Previous endodontic studies using different wavelengths of high intensity laser irradiation have demonstrated the efficiency of their thermal effect in the ablation process of hard dental tissues in apicectomies as well as in the bacterial reduction at the surgical site or even in contaminated root canals. This has been considered a great advantage over the traditional root canal disinfection procedures.