Laser Dentistry Creates Healthy Gums

Laser gum therapy is, of course, the use of a laser to treat the gums. Lasers are a unique instrument in dentistry. All lasers produce a beam of light that is a specific wavelength that, at that particular wavelength, a certain type of tissue will absorb the energy, and when the energy's absorbed, it releases heat. And with gum treatment, the laser wavelength is such that the tissues that absorb the energy are the bacteria and anything that's dark and pigmented. So, when you use laser surgery in dentistry, the Millennium laser will not damage the tooth any. The tooth won't absorb its energy. And what happens is you go in pockets and you kill the bacteria, remove the epithelial lining and the tissue so that you've got a wound that is free of bacteria and free of gum skin, and it allows it to heal back. And you can actually grow and regenerate bone and connective tissue and give the gums a better health. Laser procedure generally takes about an hour and a half per quadrant, a quadrant being a quarter of the mouth. It's not painful to have done. It's just a simple numbing technique, just like if you was going to have a filling or something like that done. And since it's so non-invasive and you're dealing with such a small amount of tissue, you're treating . . . You're only treating, maybe, a millimeter thickness of tissue that may only go like 5 millimeters deep. And so there's not a lot of tissue that's actually involved in the surgery, and so, post-op, usually Advil or something like that is all that you need.