The Miracle of the New Diagnostic Laser
Have you ever had a cavity that you couldn't even see? And did the dentist then put in HUGE filling? Of course you thought, since you couldn't even see the cavity, the dentist made a mistake and drilled away too much of the tooth. I hear this every day from my patients.
Well, that's probably not the case. All molars (and many bicuspids) have tiny little natural pits in the biting surface and often on the sides of the teeth. These pits are microscopically thin, so you can't see down into them and the dentists pick ‘cannot even' feel down inside them. X-rays are effective at showing cavities between the teeth, but because the teeth are so thick in the middle, cavities do not show well (or at all) in the middle of the tooth. In fact, studies show that x-rays miss up to 50% of the cavities in your mouth. So often cavities are hidden for years. By the time the dentist sees the cavity, or you feel the cavity, it is very large and in some cases the tooth already needs a root canal. This diagnostic problem has perplexed dentists for decades. Of course, now we can place 'sealants' on these pits. But how do we know if there is already a small cavity deep in the pit? We don't know. A revolutionary new Diagnostic laser has been developed to discover hidden cavities within the tooth. This now allows us to diagnose tooth decay in the beginning stages, and stop it before it does much damage.
The Diagnostic Laser directs a harmless and PAINLESS laser light beam deeply into the tooth. The beam will be reflected back at the laser tip. Tooth decay will reflect the light back at a different wavelength, which the laser will detect. Like a Geiger counter, the laser will beep at different rates, and display different readings depending on how much decay it finds. 80% of all cavities occur in these natural pits. Elimination of tooth decay in its early stages prevents teeth from needing large fillings and possibly root canals.
We've always known this. But before this new Diagnostic Laser, we did not have the ability to catch these cavities early -- now we do.
