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Date: 3rd Oct. 2017
The gold standard of treatment during bleeding during cavity filling would be to use a soft tissue laser like a magic wand and arrest the bleeding instantly. The laser not only provides haemostasis but also gets rid of the light inflammation in the area. Once the bleeding has stopped the clinician can proceed stress-free with the restorative procedure and provide patients with a high-quality restoration.
All of us who have done restorative work in our clinics, know that in these situations a laser can be a blessing especially during the evening hours of practice when patients are twiddling their thumbs in our waiting rooms and complaining about the slow service especially in our bustling cities. Also, our paying clientele would definitely appreciate the fact that they could get a high-quality restoration in a single visit. And for us dentists, handling composites no longer needs to be a nightmare. For one thing is certain with dental composites and that is they are technique sensitive.
Instead of conventional periodontal surgery, imagine if a soft tissue laser is used for treating the patient. This will result in less gingival bleeding, promote gingival health and basically do a superior job as compared to conventional surgery.
In many of these cases sutures can be avoided (another place that most patients don’t want to go to). Since the depth of the incision is low and there is very less oozing of blood, this exponentially increases the patients comfort and subsequent trust in the dentist.
Since the procedure is less invasive, the healing time is very less. This also benefits people who wish to get gum treatments done and catch a flight on the same day. For e.g. flight attendants, pilots, HNIs . Thus, our esteemed patients won’t have to cancel their travel plans. In today’s fast-paced world this really matters to them. Lasers used in gum treatment result in less doses of local anaesthesia administered, thus patients are at ease and the time duration between treatments and food intake is drastically reduced.
There are many patients who visit our practices with the above soft tissue swellings. Conventionally local anaesthesia and a surgical approach are mandatory. But, in laser therapy with just a touch of the laser beam under local anaesthesia, a relatively bloodless procedure can be executed. This makes a huge difference to our paediatric patients who are averse to the sight of blood. So, managing them becomes easier. Along with the quick healing that follows, they don’t have to give up their favourite foods. Thus, such patients put us dentists in the ‘good people’ list.
Lasers also work when these swellings are vascular, thus putting the dentist in the driver’s seat allowing a smooth execution of the procedure.
In present day India, there are a lot of people who chew tobacco on a daily basis in spite of the numerous warnings on those packs. It has become a way of life with them and when most patients with oral sub mucous fibrosis visit our practices they present with trismus. This makes examining them mission impossible as neither a mirror nor probe enters the oral cavity. These patients mostly present with decayed posteriors. Hence, putting us in a dilemma because if we can’t examine them, we can’t diagnose the dental pathology. And without a diagnosis, we can’t treatment treat them.
The first step is taking the aid of extra oral diagnostic tools like OPG, CBCT, etc. which can at least primarily show us the dental pathology. Now what follows is the treatment which is usually extraction of the affected teeth. But with the presenting trismus it’s easier said than done. If a dentist proceeds to release the fibrous bands that too after a thorough diagnosis of the oral lesion he lands up in a situation of uncontrolled bleeding.
This procedure poses a challenge for the operating surgeon and makes the situation unpalatable for the patients.
In these cases, use of lasers can help us to break these bands while providing haemostasis and at the same time, the patient is at ease and this doesn’t leave a bad taste in his mouth.
After the jaw opening has been temporarily achieved, the surgeon can proceed towards the dental treatments swiftly and achieve a more predictable result.
