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It is known that Nd:YAG laser radiation on dental structure can increase enamel resistance to demineralization; however, few studies report its impact in orthodontics. This study aimed to verify the interaction of Nd:YAG laser and aluminum oxide sandblasting (Al2O3) as preconditioning treatment of lingual brackets bonding to quantify the shear bond strength (SBS) and to characterize the enamel after different surface preconditioning techniques. Thirty-five bovines’ incisors were divided in 5 groups (n=7), according to the preconditioning. All groups had the lingual brackets bonded with Transbond XT adhesive according to manufacturer’ protocol, and shear bonded after 72h. Samples were analyzed by Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Scanning Eletronic Microscope (SEM) to verify enamel alterations. Optical attenuation coefficient (α) was measured before any preconditioning (T0) and after preconditioning surface (T1) for each group. Statistics analysis ANOVA-test was used, followed by Post Hoc Tukey for shear bond strength data, and Kruskal Wallis and post hoc Dunn test for α data. SEM and OCT qualitative analysis showed the melting effect with laser irradiation and enamel crystal surface disorganization with sandblasting in T1 and after shear bond. All groups were adequate for SBS and the statistical differences (p=0.0034) among groups showed better results for groups with techniques association (laser and Al2O3 used in this or in reverse order) and the highest SBS when laser was used after. The Al2O3 removes part of melting effect. The α had statistical difference (p= 0.0124) among groups, increasing with laser and Al2O3 isolated and decrease with techniques association.

Near infrared imaging methods, including optical coherence tomography (OCT), have shown promise in assessing activity of enamel caries lesions. We present initial results in ex-vivo dental samples with a polarization diversity-detection OCT system complete with an integrated dental handpiece. Built around an Axsun Technologies swept source engine, images B-scans 12(x) by 7(z) mm at over 100 fps with 66um transverse and 7um depth resolution. Internal normal dental structure and lesions were imaged and compared with micro-CT. We demonstrate that the Axsun OCT prototype can detect the penetration of occlusal lesions to dentin and measure the penetration of approximal lesions when imaging from the occlusal surface.

The use of composite resins for restorative procedure in anterior and posterior cavities is highly common in Dentistry due to its mechanical and aesthetic properties that are compatible with the remaining dental structure. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the optical characterization of one dental composite resin using bovine enamel as reinforcing filler. The same organic matrix of the commercially available resins was used for this experimental resin. The reinforcing filler was obtained after the gridding of bovine enamel fragments and a superficial treatment was performed to allow the adhesion of the filler particles with the organic matrix. Different optical images as fluorescence and reflectance were performed to compare the experimental composite with the human teeth. The present experimental resin shows similar optical properties compared with human teeth.

Scanning, also called digitizing, is the process of gathering the requisite data from an object. Many different technologies are used to collect three dimensional data. They range from mechanical and very slow, to radiation-based and highly-automated. Each technology has its advantages and disadvantages, and their applications and specifications overlap. The aims of this study are represented by establishing a viable method of digitally representing artifacts of dental casts, proposing a suitable scanner and post-processing software and obtaining 3D Models for the dental applications. The method is represented by the scanning procedure made by different scanners as the implicated materials. Scanners are the medium of data capture. 3D scanners aim to measure and record the relative distance between the object's surface and a known point in space. This geometric data is represented in the form of point cloud data. The contact and no contact scanners were presented. The results show that contact scanning procedures uses a touch probe to record the relative position of points on the objects' surface. This procedure is commonly used in Reverse engineering applications. Its merits are represented by efficiency for objects with low geometric surface detail. Disadvantages are represented by time consuming, this procedure being impractical for artifacts digitization. The non contact scanning procedure implies laser scanning (laser triangulation technology) and photogrammetry. As a conclusion it can be drawn that different types of dental structure needs different types of scanning procedures in order to obtain a competitive complex 3D virtual model that can be used in CAD/CAM technologies.

Studies in cariology have been struggling for the development of caries prevention techniques, precocious diagnoses of lesions, re-mineralization of incipient carious lesions and early restorative intervention with minimally invasive procedures. When removing caries, healthy dental structure is often removed inadvertently during its final phase, for being quite difficult to precise the limits between viable and decayed dental tissues clinically. With laser technologies, a subjective clinical hint, often used to indicate when tissue ablation should be stopped is that different sounds are perceptive whether in carious (bass) or in healthy (treble) dental structure; when sound produced by ablation turned treble it would mean that healthy tissue was reached. This study aims to classify those audio differences and to turn them into objective parameters for a conservative operative dentistry with minimally invasive tissue removal when using erbium lasers. Twenty freshly extracted human teeth were used (10 decayed and 10 sound teeth). Dentine was erbium laser irradiated under same parameters, distance and refrigeration and a mono directional microphone was set 10 cm far from the operative area in order to capture and record the ablation produced sounds when working either on carious or healthy dentine. Ten pulses per file were then analysed in a computer software (200 analyses). It was permitted to draw similarities among the patterns in each group (decayed and healthy teeth) as well as differences between decayed and healthy produced sounds. Audio analysis came out to be a technical reliable objective parameter to determine whether laser ablated dentine substrates are decayed or sound; therefore it can be proposed as a conservative parameter, avoiding unnecessary removal of healthy dentine and restricting it to carious one.

The dental bleaching is known for many years. Recently a technique employing light has open up new and exciting possibilities. Besides its vast application there are still many important points to be understood about teeth photon bleaching. In this work we present an "in vitro" experiment to explore the main mechanisms involved during the photon action in tooth whitening. Our results indicated that light at same wavelengths are great absorbed by pigments creating a local heating which considerably increase the bleaching rate. This results in a fast reaction without heating the whole dental structure. We discuss details of our experiment. Work supported by Fapesp and CNPq.

We employed OCT imaging technique to study the human teeth infected with the caries lesion in fit and fissure. A time domain OCT system using a rapid-scanning optical delay line enabled high speed imaging of extracted teeth. The OCT images presented the morphological feature and caries-involved area of the dental structure with a high resolution of ~14 μm. The OCT images could be utilized to diagnose the disease, while a signal along the axial direction could provide quantitative analysis of the disease based on the reflectivity differences in the specimen. We investigated the influence of caries in human teeth with several imaging tools such as light illuminating exam, digital intra-oral radiography and electron probe micro analyzer, which provided the distributions of chemical compositions, mainly calcium and phosphate in hard tissues. The biochemical changes acquired from EPMA and the morphological features acquired from OCT in the early stage of caries were compared and analyzed to present more objectively practical index for translating the degree of caries.

The knowledge about and control of thermal energy produced by Er:YAG laser after irradiating hard dental tissues and compound resin is important because the pulp, like all vital biological tissue, has a certain capacity for supporting stimulus. The objective of this study was to analyze the thermal variation generated by Er:YAG laser (λ=2.94μm) during the preparation of a Class I cavity in the dental structure and in the removal of microhybrid Z100 (3M) compound resin. An evaluation was made of 30 maxillary human pre-molar teeth from the bank of the Endodontic Laboratory Center of Ribeirao Preto Dental School, Brasil. The sample was divided into 6 groups of 5 teeth each: Group 1, preparation of Class I cavity with Er:YAG laser (350mJ, 3Hz, 343 impulses, 120J, 113 seconds); Group 2, preparation of Class I cavity with Er:YAG laser (350mJ, 4Hz, 343 impulses, 120J, 81 seconds); Group 3, preparation of Class I cavity with Er:YAG laser (350mJ, 6Hz, 343 impulses, 120J, 58 seconds); Group 4, removal of compound resin from Class I preparation with Er:YAG laser (350mJ, 3Hz, 258 impulses, 90J, 85 seconds); Group 5, removal of compound resin from Class I preparation with Er:YAG laser (350mJ, 4Hz, 258 impulses, 90J, 67 seconds); Group 6, removal of compound resin from Class I preparation with Er:YAG laser (350mJ, 6Hz, 258 impulses, 42 seconds). The laser used was KaVo Key 2 (Biberach, Germany), λ=2,94μm, P=3 Watts, pulse duration of 250μs, with air-water cooling. The increase in temperature during dental preparation and the removal of the compound resin was evaluated by means of a Tektronix DMM916 Thermocouple (Consitec, Brasil). The results showed that the application of laser for the removal of the hard dental tissues and for the removal of compound resins with the pulse frequencies 3, 4 and 6 Hz did not generate heating greater than 3.1°C and remained within the histopathological limits permitted for pulp tissue (5.5°C) and there was a significant statistical difference between the heat generated by the application of laser in the removal of the hard dental tissues and in the removal of compound resins (p

The autofluorescence spectra of hard dental tissues, both in normal and pathological areas were investigated in this study. The measurements were performed both on the intact hard tissues of the examined teeth, such as enamel, dentine, cementum, and root canal, and on the tissues pathologically affected by caries (superficial, intermediate, and deep). Various laser wavelengths (337 nm, 488 nm, and 514 nm) were used to irradiate the dental surfaces and a computer-controlled spectrograph captured the fluorescent spectra. The emission signals were stored, measured, analyzed and quantified in terms of wavelength distribution and the relative photon intensity. Results indicated that the fluorescent spectra from healthy enamel, dentine, and cementum were almost identical in form, depending on the excitation wavelength. The intact and affected hard tissues were greatly different in the integral fluorescent intensity. Healthy areas were found to produce the most pronounced fluorescent intensity, whereas the carious regions produced the weaker fluorescent intensity. Independently of the laser excitation wavelength, dentin regions were found to produce the most pronounced fluorescent intensity than any other dental component. The fluorescence signal of carious affected dental structure revealed a reed shifted spectral curve, more pronounced after 488 nm excitation. There was a pronounced red shift for deep caries (crown -- root caries), after ultraviolet laser excitation. Excitation with visible wavelengths did not produce such differences between intact and cervical, deep carious affected tissue. Using a monochromatic light source without any light output at the wavelengths of fluorescence, e.g. a laser with the appropriate filters, the difference in fluorescence between intact and carious enamel was generally easy to observe. Finally, we found that the blue line of an argon ion laser is preferable for superficial caries detection, while the ultraviolet emitting nitrogen laser induces better discrimination in deep caries diagnosis.

The aim of this work was to demonstrate, based upon scientific evidence, the efficacy of dental treatment using the Er:YAG laser. The Er:YAG laser is able of quick cavitation of dental structure with minimal thermal effect. It is also well known that most treatment is carried out without the need of local anesthesia. It is also recognized that its work with no vibration and in a non-contact mode. This paper reports the clinical results of 590 dental procedures carried out with the Er:YAG laser on selected patients. The laser was used for composite removal, cavity enamel preparation, carious dentine removal and conditioning of both dentin and enamel. Dental treatment with the Er:YAG laser as a secure and efficient method of treatment with more comfort for the patients, high acceptance form patients and less need of using local anesthesia.

The technology in dentistry has been developed significantly lately, increasing the technological level of new materials, methods and equipment have been developed. Undoubtedly the CO 2 laser has contributed to this evolution particularly to the treatment of the infected dentin . CO 2 laser can sterilize and promote increase 6 to 8 times of dentin resistence , through the transformation the hydroxiapatite in calcium-phosphatohydroxiapatite. We can reassure our patients about the use of pulsed CO 2 laser due to better preservation of dental structure and its benefits permitting advanced esthetic treatments. The CEREC system, registers a tri-dimensional image of the preparation through a scan system, and sends it to the computer and the operator will edit the restorations so the equipment will the finish porcelain restoration. The authors used a new laser 650 nm for caries detection and the other low lever laser ( 670 nm and 730 nm) considered an auxiliary method to prevent and treat the hypersensitivity in dentin.

The authors spectral analyses for each dental structure proposed the capability that the photo thermal reaction on teeth to laser exposure might be applicable for the detection of dental caries. This experiment was designed intending to realize the prospect on the fundamental experiment. Nd:YAG laser was selected for the appropriate wavelength for this experiment. When the occlusal surface of an extracted human tooth was exposed to a fine shot of the laser beam, the temperature of the occlusal surface was measured with an infrared thermometer and a real time infrared thermocamera, and the relative intensity of the transillumination of the laser beam at the lateral surface of the subject tooth was evaluated as a thermal data using a thermocouple. As the result of this experiment, the photo-thermal reaction of carious teeth following exposure to the Nd:YAG laser beam was different so contrastively from that of intact teeth that this method was successfully applied to the detection of dental caries, and the carious site was apparently discriminated as a thermal pattern of high temperature on the real time thermogram. The detectability for dental caries in this method was so sensitive as to identify even a fine dental anomaly which was hardly discriminated from a normal tooth in the usual roentgenography. The advantages in this method are summarized as follows : Much more sensitive for detection of dental caries than roentgenography, Complete safety, Simplicity in technique, ® Not only the existence of dental caries but also the decayed area can be detected, ® In addition to these, the results of this experiment hopefully propose the expectation that this method might lead to an epoch-making technique for evaluating biochemical quality of teeth.