Dentin mid-infrared laser ablation at various lasing parameters

Abstract

In this study a frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) Q-switched and free-running Er:YAG laser, as well as a novel design transversally excited atmospheric pressure (TEA) oscillator-double amplifier corona preionised high beam quality Hydrogen-Fluoride (HF) laser system, all developed in our lab, were used in dentin ablation experiments. In the case of the Er:YAG laser, pulses of 190 ns in Q-switched operation and of 80 µs pulse width in free-running operation at 2.94 µm were used, while HF laser pulses of 39 ns in the wavelength range of 2.6-3.1 µm in a predominantly TEM 00 beam were also used to interact in vitro with dentin tissue. Several samples of freshly extracted human teeth were used, cut longitudinally in facets of 0.4-1.5 mm thick. Ablation experiments were conducted with the laser beam directly focused on the tissue or after being waveguided through suitable mid-IR fiber/waveguide alternatively ended with quartz endsealing caps. The correlation between the various laser beam parameters, as wavelength, pulse duration, repetition rate, energy and spatial distribution of the beam profile and the ablative characteristics (ablation rates, tissue surface morphology) of dentin surface were investigated.