http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
feasibiliy study of dye-enhanced laser ablation of dental enamel
Dental research involving lasers began in 1964 with the
application of the ruby laser on hard dental tissue. Since
then, various lasers have been studied as possible
alternatives to the conventional drill in selected
procedures. However, the most success with dental lasers
has occurred in the soft tissue area. Several soft tissue
lasers currently have Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approval for clinical use. Dental hard tissue applications
have not had the success originally expected after the onset
of the ruby laser experiments. This study shows the
feasibility of drilling tooth enamel with a unique
combination of a dye and a laser (alexandrite) in the
visible to near IR range. The dye acts as a photoabsorber,
enhancing the absorptive characteristics of tooth enamel at
the wavelength of the chosen alexandrite laser. Mechanical
and physical properties were used as a measure of
feasibility. The data indicate that this "optical drilling"
with the laser-dye combination is definitely feasible, with
results similar to that of the conventional dental drill.
The results from this study indicate that future testing of
this dye-laser combination for tooth drilling is both
necessary and important in the development of a dye-laser