There are several types of dental lasers currently approved for use in dental offices. Lasers energy can be harnessed in various ways to treat certain dental conditions. These have been used to perform gum surgery and even anesthetic-free cavity removal. One of the newest and most interesting applications of lasers is their use in quick and painless diagnostic testing. A new device called a "Diagnodent" instrument uses a low-energy laser beam to detect tooth decay that in the past was otherwise invisible to us.

A fine laser beam-as thin as a hair-is directed onto the biting surfaces of teeth. As the laser illuminates the small grooves and crevices in a tooth, it measures the amount of light reflected inside the tooth. By reading the amount of reflected light, this device tells us if a suspicious tooth has a simple stain on its biting surface, or a genuine cavity. Some types of cavities-because of their size or location- just don't show up well on x-rays. The device is an important diagnostic instrument that gives us information about teeth that we just can't get from x-rays.