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Within the last decade, ultrashort pulse solid-state lasers have matured considerably with respect to simplicity, efficiency, pulse repetition rate, and reliability, especially in a diode-pumped scheme, leading to numerous applications. In dentistry, they represent a challenging and promising new approach to dental hard tissue preparation, offering superior performance as compared to already commercially available infrared pulsed laser systems such as Er:YAG. Advantages include an extremely precise geometrical shape of the prepared cavity and possible complete absence of damage resulting from heat and shock waves. Pulpal temperature increase is negligible, despite the absence of water spray cooling. Integrating miniature scanning systems into redesigned state-of-the-art laser handpieces, one can potentially achieve acceptably fast, efficient, and gentle preparation of teeth. Besides the well-known advantages of laser preparation, eg, nearly pain-free treatment, new benefits such as ideal cavity forms and improved bonding to filling materials are to be expected. Thus, this new approach to cavity preparation could lead to high, long-term patient satisfaction and more comfortable daily work for the dentist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]