Soft tissue 10,600 nm CO2 laser orthodontic procedures

Introduction Soft tissue surgical lasers have many advantages over traditional scalpel surgery, cryosurgery, and electrosurgery. However, not all lasers are equally efficient at both cutting the soft tissue, coagulating, and hemostasis because light absorption in the soft tissue varies with wavelength.1-3 As illustrated in Figure 1, some dental laser wavelengths (around 1,000 nm, such as diodes and Nd:YAG) are efficient coagulators, but inefficient scalpels since they are poorly absorbed by the soft tissue. Other dental laser wavelengths (around 3,000 nm, such as Erbium lasers) are well absorbed by the water-rich soft tissue and are great at cutting, but are not as efficient at coagulating and hemostasis.