Laser Inhibition of Dental Caries Suggested by First Tests in Vivo

Structural Changes on Human Dental Enamel Treated with Er:YAG, CO2 Lasers and Remineralizing Solution: EDS Analysis

“…The energy applied is readily absorbed in hard tissues but causes instantaneous heat accumulation in the irradiated inorganic components, resulting in carbonization of the organic components and melting of the inorganic components, instead of the water-mediated physical collapse of hard tissues observed in Er:YAG laser irradiation (Aoki, et al, 2004). The caries-preventive effect produced on the enamel surface due to CO 2 laser irradiation was reported by Stern et al (Stern, et al, 1972). Subsequently, several studies, both in vitro Kantorowitz, et al, 1998;Hsu, et al, 2000;Tsai, et al, 2002) and in vivo (Kato, et al, 2003), have shown increases in enamel acid resistance.…”

“…The first laboratory tests in vitro were carried out by Stern and Sognnaes and were limited to the use of ruby laser (Stern & Sognnaes, 1972). Then, due to technological advances, new lasers, such as argon ion, Nd:YAG, and CO 2 lasers, among others, were developed (Parker, 2007a).…”

“…Since then, several studies on caries prevention have been published due to the development of several types of lasers, such as CO 2 , (Stern & Sognnaes, 1972;Featherstone, et al, 1998;Hsu, et al, 2000;Tisai, et al, 2002;Kato, et al, 2003;Klein, et al, 2005;Steiner-Oliveira, et al, 2006), argon (Westerman, et al, 2002;Nammour, et al, 2005), Nd:YAG (Bahar & Tagomori, 1994;Hossain, et al, 2001a), and Diodo (Kato, et al, 2006) and more recently with the group of erbium lasers: Er, Cr:YSGG and Er:YAG (Kayano, et al, 1989;Fried, et al, 1996;Hossain, et al, 2001b;Apel, et al, 2004). There are various theories to explain the reduced acid solubility of dental enamel after heating.…”

Estudo in situ da resistência à desmineralização do esmalte dental submetido à irradiação com laser Er,Cr:YSGG associada ao uso de produtos fluoretados

“…No primeiro estudo in vitro [Stern et al, 1972], foi realizada a irradiação com laser de CO 2 em esmalte, sob densidade de energia de 10 e 15 J/cm 2 . Por meio de microscopia eletrônica de varredura, observou-se que as regiões irradiadas expostas ao ambiente ácido permaneceram mais íntegras morfologicamente, ao passo que as não irradiadas mostraram características de desmineralização.…”

“…A irradiação laser pode possibilitar como coadjuvante ao tratamento convencional com produtos fluoretados, o aumento da formação, retenção e incorporação de flúor no esmalte. Dentre os lasers mais estudados para este fim, destacam-se os lasers de CO 2 [Meuerman et al, 1992;Featherstone et al, 2012], Nd:YAG [Zezell et al, 2008, Harazaki et al, 2011, Argônio [Nammour et al, 2003] i , Ho:YLF [Stern et al, 1972], Er:YAG [Del Bem et al, 2003] e, mais recentemente, o laser Er,Cr:YSGG [Apel et al, 2003].…”