There are places you expect to see lasers:
» Battles in space in science fiction movies
» Rock concerts
» Shows at local planetariums
The dentist office is probably not the first place you would expect to find lasers. Yet we use multiple lasers (and more may be coming) at Dr. James C. Ross Family, Cosmetic & Laser Dentistry.
Lasers are transforming dentistry in ways that make preventive, restorative, and cosmetic treatments more effective and less painful for patients.
We’ve seen the benefits at our dentist office in Novi, MI. We would love to show you what we can do. To make an appointment, call 248-697-2487 or fill out our online form.
For now, however, we would like to share some of the ways we use dental lasers to help patients like you and your family.
Finding Cavities
When cavities reach a certain point, they are obvious to everyone. Your teeth develop dark or yellow spot. You may even have holes in your teeth if the tooth decay has eaten away enough of your enamel.
But what if we told you we could detect cavities before they were obvious to anyone?
That’s exactly what we can do with our DIAGNOdent laser. This tool is a big part of our cavity detection system.
The DIAGNOdent is a diode laser. We can use it to make readings across your teeth.
The laser is able to detect subtle changes that are not apparent to the human eye.
This tool is used to measure fluorescence, which is a fancy way of saying it can measure how light reflects off your teeth. By using this tools we can find cavities much earlier than ever.
This also leads us to another reason we use dental lasers.
Treating Cavities
The DIAGNOdent is very good at what it does, but we need a different laser to helping in restoring a tooth that has a cavity.
We were the first dentist office in Michigan with a Biolase Erbium laser. This tool allows us to remove decay from teeth without using a drill and without using any anesthetic.
This makes the process of getting a dental filling or even a root canal easier for everyone involved. When you are comfortable, it helps our dental professionals stay focused on the task at hand.
Treating Gum Disease
The Biolase laser also can be used on soft tissues. This makes it a great tool in treating gum disease as well.
The old way of removing infected gum tissue sometimes involves surgery. That meant using a scalpel to cut into your gums to remove the infected tissue. Often, dentists removed some healthy tissue as well to make sure the infection was gone.
Stitches were often necessary to close the tissue so it could heal.
If none of that sounds pleasant to you, we don’t blame you. It doesn’t sound pleasant to us either. That’s why the Biolase is such a big step forward.
With the Biolase, we can “zap” the infected tissue instead.
For all practical purposes, this means we can make infected tissue evaporate. At the same time, the laser seals the remaining tissue. That means less bleeding, shorter recovery times, and in most cases, no stitches.
Improving Smiles
Your “pearly whites” are the stars of your smile. For better or worse, some people have what could be called “gummy” smiles.
Gummy smiles can occur for a few reasons.
Just like some people have longer arms or longer fingers than others, some people have more gum tissue than others.
Another possibility is that someone may have “short” teeth. This happens when their teeth erupt, but not quite as far as other people’s teeth do.
In both of these cases, you can wind up with a higher gum to tooth ratio than you might like. By using the Biolase, we can remove the excess gum tissue to either change how your lips cover your mouth or to reveal more of your teeth.
Either way, you can have a more “toothy” smile with the help our laser dentistry.
Multiple Ways Lasers Can Help
Lasers are the next advancement in modern dentistry. You could go to a dentist office using the older methods, or you could step into the future at Dr. James C. Ross Family, Cosmetic & Laser Dentistry.
To learn more or to make an appointment, fill out our online form or call 248-697-2487.