Laser tartar removal

Have you developed an unpleasant odor from your mouth? Have your gums started to hurt and your teeth to become loose? Have you discovered a hard dark coating on your teeth? All of these signs indicate that you have hard deposits – tartar. What should you do in such a situation? How to treat it? Where should you run? Advertising in the media, billboards and on the Internet is full of various methods of cleaning your teeth, both professional and at home. Which one should you choose? In this article, we will dwell in detail on the laser method of removing tartar – the most advanced method in the fight against hard deposits.

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Indications for laser tartar removal

Hard deposits on teeth can appear for various reasons. This includes insufficient or improper oral care, eating only soft foods, metabolic disorders, bad habits, and much more. You should always remember that tartar occurs as a result of the hardening of soft plaque. That is why you need to carefully monitor your oral hygiene and visit the dentist for preventive purposes at least once every six months. But what should you do if tartar has already formed? Naturally, you need to contact a specialist to remove it. The safest and most atraumatic way to get rid of this unpleasant phenomenon is laser tartar removal. This innovative technology was invented quite recently and requires highly professional expensive equipment, so not all dental clinics can boast of providing this service.

What is unique about the laser tartar removal procedure? Usually, the procedure for removing hardened deposits using the laser method consists of the same stages as with ultrasound removal, namely: preparation of the oral cavity, the actual removal of hardened deposits, and the procedure for grinding teeth using the Air Flow method. At the first stage, the dentist examines the oral cavity for caries, enamel chips, fillings, dental implants, stomatitis, gum inflammation, etc., after which he gives a conclusion on the possibility of performing the procedure. Then, using special equipment, the laser tartar removal process itself is performed. Some dentists use a special solution for ease of visualization, which colors the surface of the hard plaque in a bright color.

The principle of action of the laser on tartar is unique in its own way. It destroys only it, without affecting the enamel and the inner part of the tooth. What is the secret? The fact is that the laser acts only on substances containing liquid, and we know for sure that tooth enamel is the hardest formation in our body and it contains practically no water molecules. The device has several modes, thanks to which you can easily remove both hard deposits and soft plaque. The action of the laser is combined with a stream of a special mixture of water and air, which washes away even the smallest particles of tartar. Thanks to this technique, you can remove the most difficult type of hard plaque - subgingival. The final stage of laser tartar removal is the Air Flow procedure, which gently polishes the surface of the teeth and cleans the interdental spaces.

Some clinics offer an additional service in the form of applying a special fluoride-containing paste to the enamel surface, which saturates the tooth enamel with useful substances.

Benefits of Laser Tartar Removal

Unlike the method of removing hard deposits using ultrasound, laser removal has a huge advantage, namely, during the procedure, the device nozzle does not touch the tooth surface, but acts remotely, thereby completely eliminating the possibility of damaging the enamel and gum line. It is also worth noting that when removing tartar using a laser, not only plaque is removed, but the inner surface of the caries is also cleaned, which prevents its subsequent development. The laser also has a bactericidal effect, so you can be sure that after the procedure, there will be no pathogenic bacteria left in your mouth. An additional advantage of the laser technique is its whitening property. You do not need to undergo an additional teeth whitening procedure after laser cleaning, since the tooth enamel will become 2-3 tones lighter. And finally, we want to please those who are afraid of dentists like fire. Removing tartar using a laser is absolutely painless! This procedure does not require preliminary anesthesia and mental preparation. And even if you have minor damage to your gums, after laser treatment of the oral cavity they will heal twice as fast.

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Disadvantages of laser tartar removal

Almost the only, but also quite significant disadvantage of laser cleaning of hard deposits is its cost. This method can be offered by far from all dental offices and not even all dental clinics. But for the sake of proper oral care, we think it is worth looking. We also want to warn that patients who have a large number of fillings or parts of the tooth built up with photopolymer may experience uneven whitening of the tooth enamel surface, since the photopolymer is difficult to lighten.

Contraindications to laser tartar removal

The laser tartar removal procedure has virtually no contraindications. Like other methods, laser tartar removal is not recommended for pregnant women and children with baby teeth. Relative contraindications include stomatitis, gum inflammation, and a large number of fillings. Complete contraindications include:

• AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases;
• the patient has epileptic disease or asthma attacks;
• the presence of orthopedic structures on the teeth;
• the presence of pacemakers or other implants in the patient's body;
• colds or runny nose.

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Cost of laser tartar removal procedure

Unfortunately, the method of removing tartar using a laser is still not very common, since the cost of laser installations is very high and requires certain skills in operation, so clinics using it can only be found in large cities. At the same time, the cost of the procedure is very high (almost 10 times higher than the ultrasonic method). Kyiv private dental clinics offer laser cleaning at a cost of 5000-7000 UAH, private clinics in other cities may differ in lower cost, but not significantly, namely 4000-6000 UAH for both jaws.

Reviews after laser cleaning

After using a laser to clean tartar, the likelihood of caries is reduced, and bad breath disappears. The teeth whitening effect is a very pleasant surprise. Those people who suffered from bleeding gums when brushing their teeth note less trauma to the mucous membrane. Thanks to the action of the laser, tooth enamel becomes much more susceptible to useful substances coming from the external environment, namely fluorine and calcium. If you regularly perform professional teeth cleaning with a laser, you can avoid such serious diseases as periodontitis and periodontosis.