| 摘要 |
A method and apparatus are described for cutting, drilling, ablating, fusing or altering dental tissues including enamel, dentine, bone, and cementium among others. Far infrared radiation of wavelengths between 2.5 and 3.2 microns are used to selectively affect dental tissue, where the radiation energy density determines whether cutting, fusing or other effects are produced. Either continuous wave or pulsed radiation can be used, a suitable IR source being an Erbium YSGG laser having an output wavelength of 2.79 microns. The exposed dental tissue is removed, fused, or otherwise affected without damage to the surrounding tissues depending on the duration of the exposure. Medical and dental applications include the removal of carious lesions and the preparation of a carious lesion for filling with an appropriate filler material, the cutting or sectioning of healthy tissue, the sealing of cracks and fissures in the hard tissues, the fusing of enamel surfaces in order to prevent decay, the removal of calculus deposits, the preparation of implant sites, the application of coatings chemically similar to the dental hard tissue by fusion induced by the radiation, sealing of root surfaces in the treatment of sensitive teeth, the sterilization root surfaces and many more natural extensions of the invention.
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