Enhanced hemostasis and improved healing in CO2 laser-assisted soft tissue oral surgeries

The key to successful applications of soft tissue lasers and their advantages over other surgical tools is their ability to accurately cut and efficiently coagulate the soft tissue at the same time. However, not all lasers are efficient at both cutting and coagulating. Some laser wavelengths (such as those of Erbium lasers) are great at cutting but are not as efficient at coagulating.1 Other wavelengths (such as those of diode lasers) are efficient coagulators but are poor scalpels.2 There are also lasers (such as the CO2 laser) that are efficient at both cutting and coagulating the soft tissue.1 The key to understanding how the laser light cuts and coagulates is through the wavelength-dependent nature of laser light’s absorption by the soft tissue, as presented in Figure 1 for the three wavelength groups of practical dental lasers that are on the market today: • circa 1,000 nm (diodes and Nd:YAG laser) • circa 3,000 nm (Erbium lasers) • circa 10,000 nm (CO2 lasers)