Lasers & your Dental Health Professional

Lasers have been used in medicine for many years, most notably for eye surgeries. Lasers use light – in an energy form – that can be harnessed and used to treat many situations.

In dentistry, Laser technology was introduced to dental practice in 1960.
Lasers are selective – one laser is not capable of treating everything.

Dental Patient
“Bliss – the iconic photo that became the Windows XP backdrop was shot on film and not digitally manipulated in any way”

What Chuck Orear said about Laser Dentistry

Dr Pang & his wife have rescued and provide a home to thoroughbred racehorses.

Dr Pang collaborated with California vet Dr Norm Rantanen to utilize laser therapy in the rehabilitation process for their rescued horses.

This video follows the story of Dr Norm providing the first laser therapy session in the US to another rescued horse.

Laser Dental Offices are proud of the significant investment they have made to provide this level of care. Your committed dental team at Asheville Holistic Dentist has attended many hours of educational programs to become highly trained in using laser technology during your dentist visit.

Benefits of Laser Dentistry

  • Reduces healing time and overall procedural time.
  • Seals the nerve endings to enhance patient comfort during and after the procedure.
  • Decreases the need for multiple appointments.
  • Removes diseased tissues.
  • Promotes healthy tissue regeneration.
  • Selective; Removes the decay and not healthy tooth enamel.
  • Does not overheat your tooth like a drill.
  • Does not make the whining noise like a drill.
  • Does not vibrate like a drill, and cause micro fractures on the remaining tooth enamel.
  • Seals blood vessels to reduce bleeding and post appointment swelling.
  • Significantly reduces the bacteria count in the gum tissue.
  • Usually no stitches required.
  • Little or no scaring.
  • Avoids referral to outside specialist.

Hard & Soft Tissue Laser Treatments

Unlike the dental drill, the laser we use for removing cavities is precisely programmed for tooth decay. The drill removes everything in that area: decay and healthy tooth structure. The laser is created to specifically target the softer, darker decay. This allows Dr. Pang to preserve much more of your healthy tooth structure during the process. The laser does not physically touch your tooth.

Painless? You will feel air & water during the process, much like at your dental cleaning appointment. If someone is uncomfortable during any procedure, we recommend that they raise their hand. The process will not continue until you are comfortably tolerating it.

Without lasers, a lot of dental offices rely on local antibiotics to treat this infection. Our practice has used specific lasers since the 1990’s to treat this infection and has found the need for antibiotic treatment was necessary in less than 1% of conditions.

Dental instruments remove the hard, calcified plaque deposits from the teeth and roots. Removing these hard barnacles is only one layer of our treatment approach.

The next step activates a laser on the infected gum tissue to clean it and reduce the bacterial infection. The laser is programmed to target diseased tissue. Removing the diseased tissue will promote healthy gum tissue to reattach to the teeth.

Gum disease is often invisible to the untrained eye and usually does not cause any pain in the initial stages. The infection not only destroys the gum tissue but also the bone underneath. As this disease progresses, the gum tissues and bone shrink away from around the roots of the teeth resulting in the teeth becoming loose and falling out.

One’s immune system is further burdened, as it is required to constantly fight this chronic, ongoing infection. Some health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes and pregnancy problems have been associated with a prevalence of gum disease.

When there isn’t enough tooth structure to rest the crown on or enough space to fit the new crown in, traditionally most dental practices would refer you to a specialist for a crown lengthening procedure.

This can result in halting your current procedure at the dental office, temporizing your dental situation in order to make a referral to a specialist. Then one has to wait for a consultation appointment with the specialist, after that obtain a treatment appointment with the specialist followed by post-operative appointments to check the results. When the specialist is satisfied, then you can return to the dental office to resume the initial procedure.

Having lasers here at the dental office enables Dr. Pang to accommodate your situation into your appointment.

Dr. Pang uses a soft tissue laser for people who have “gummy” smiles, to allow their natural smile to be revealed.

With our soft tissue laser, Dr. Pang can laser away the excessive gum area. This does not require stitches and heals without scarring.

Gummy Smiles

A small fold of muscle, located under the upper or lower lips, or under the tongue can become overly developed. This can cause oral health problems and be disruptive to normal movement patterns of the tongue and lips. On the upper & lower lip, it can have a very strong pull force, resulting in spaces between teeth and preventing baby teeth from coming through. It can also contribute to gum recession around teeth.

Under the tongue, it inhibits the tongues movement. This can cause a range of problems including speech impediments and gum recession. It is also one of the main reasons babies can have difficulty with breastfeeding – a condition known as being “tongue-tied”. Kids experience difficulties sticking their tongues out at their friends and licking ice-cream cones.

Left untreated, bacteria from teeth and gum tissue can penetrate through to the underlying bone. This bacterial infection advances through the bone causing the roots of teeth or Implants to become contaminated. The end result is loose teeth and loose implants.

Dr Pang uses a hard tissue laser to reduce the bacterial load in the bone areas and to help the bone regenerate. This is a technique that Dr Pang devised and as a Laser educator has successfully trained many other laser dentists in this procedure.

Learn more about Laser Dentistry

For more information about dental care with lasers read the following publications.

Laser Energy in Oral Soft Tissue

Published by the Academy of Laser Dentistry.

Lasers have been used for oral soft tissue dental procedures for more than 30 years, and have been researched since the middle 1960s.
Click to Learn More

Lasers in Aesthetic Dentistry

Published by Dental Clinics of North America

‘‘Aesthetic’’ or ‘‘cosmetic’’ dentistry is none other than restorative general dentistry completed to a level that simply makes every attempt to mimic a natural look.
Click to Learn More

Laser Safety in Dentistry

Published by the Academy of Laser Dentistry

Laser owner is responsible for ensuring that all personnel have a through knowledge of laser safety.
Click to Learn More