Article:

The key to the success of soft tissue lasers is their ability to cut and coagulate the soft tissue at the same time. Present work is aimed to derive the wavelength-dependent differences in photo-thermal ablation and coagulation efficiencies for oral soft tissue pulsed dental Near-IR Diode, Mid-IR Erbium and IR CO2 lasers. Even though the soft tissue photothermal ablation has been extensively studied, there remains a discrepancy between (a) the widely proliferated notion about efficient Near-IR 800-1,100 nm laser ablation of the oral soft tissue, and (b) studies reporting the inefficient soft tissue Near-IR absorption/ablation. Indeed, the notions about “the key to the usefulness of the Nd:YAG is that this wavelength is highly absorbed in oral soft tissue”, and “all currently available dental laser instruments and their emission wavelengths have indications for use for incising, excising... oral soft tissue surgery”, contradict an observation illustrated here...