Effects of Er: YAG laser irradiation on human extracted teeth.

Effect of Er:YAG Laser on CaF2Formation and Its Anti-Cariogenic Action on Human Enamel: Anin VitroStudy

“…3,9 Of the lasers indicated for promoting the ablation of enamel, the Er:YAG laser is absorbed more by water than by hydroxyapatite. 10 Thus, its thermal effect on mineralized tissues occurs through explosive ablation, due to the high absorption of irradiation by the water molecules contained in these tissues. However, the possibility of using this energy to increase the enamel's resistance to caries or interaction with the use of fluorides has hardly been explored.…”

The influence of three Erbium:YAG laser energies on the in vitro microleakage of Class V compomer resin restorations

“…In addition, it lacked a smear layer and the orifices of many of the tubules were exposed [15]. While thermal interactions in both tissues were limited with Er:YAG irradiation, some damage has been reported with laser energies of 500 mJ [16]. For both dentine and enamel, the depth of the pits, craters and grooves was dependent on the pulse energy used, lower energies resulting in shallower patterns, and the same pulse energy produced deeper and wider craters in dentine than enamel [17].…”

Demineralization Inhibition by High‐Speed Scanning of 9.3 µm CO2 Single Laser Pulses Over Enamel

“…In caries prevention, acid resistance studies on tooth enamel have focused on the use of fluoride to form fluorapatite [1,2], or on using laser irradiation to induce structural changes of the surface or remove acid-soluble impurities such as carbonate groups [2][3][4][5]. The removal of carbonate groups from enamel, which has been explored since the 1970s [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], is achieved when enamel reaches a temperature of at least 400°C, at which point carbonate begins to outgas as CO 2 . Lasers such as Er:YAG and Nd:YAG, with enamel absorption coefficients of~800 and <1 cm −1 , respectively, are absorbed primarily by hydroxyl groups in water and hydroxyapatite and have been demonstrated to have some success in preventing caries formation [5,6,14,15].…”

“…The removal of carbonate groups from enamel, which has been explored since the 1970s [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], is achieved when enamel reaches a temperature of at least 400°C, at which point carbonate begins to outgas as CO 2 . Lasers such as Er:YAG and Nd:YAG, with enamel absorption coefficients of~800 and <1 cm −1 , respectively, are absorbed primarily by hydroxyl groups in water and hydroxyapatite and have been demonstrated to have some success in preventing caries formation [5,6,14,15]. CO 2 lasers, particularly those at 9.3 and 9.6 µm wavelengths, are highly absorbed by phosphate groups in the enamel, with absorption coefficients of 5500 and 8000 cm −1 , respectively [5,[16][17][18][19][20][21], and therefore are capable of rapidly raising the tissue temperature to a degree at which carbonate is removed.…”