We love our Waterlase i Plus laser. Why? Well, it makes treatment that was difficult, painful, time consuming and costly into an everyday event. A prime example of this is surgical crown lengthening. What is this? Well, if you have broken a tooth and there is not enough tooth left to place a crown, you will need surgical crown lengthening. In the old days, this involved a scapel, stitches, bleeding, pain and a long time to wait before the next step. No longer. Using the Waterlase i Plus, we can perform the surgical crown lengthening at the time of preparing the crown for the tooth. The laser sterilises at the time of application, reduces bleeding, swelling encourages regeneration and has amazing healing capacities. No stitches, minimal pain and no time delay. Just take a look at a recent case:
 

We forgot to post our case for January! Better late than never. Our case involves the use of the Waterlase i Plus 2.0 to perform a procedure called surgical crown lengthening. What is surgical crown lengthening? In simple terms, this is a procedure that exposes more tooth surface to allow a dental crown to be made in such as way that it can seat on sound tooth 360 degrees. Ideally, dentists require at least 1mm of sound circumferential tooth as provides a 'ferule' and greatly enhances the resistance form and retention of a crown. How is it performed? In most cases, surgical crown lengthening involved removing gum tissue, raising the gum away from the tooth and bone and removal of bone using a drill. Stitches would be required and a healing time of twelve weeks. Needless to day, this could be painful and traumatic. Not any more! We are able to use our amazing Waterlase i Plus 2.0 to perform the surgery with minimal trauma, minimal invasion, no raising of the gum, no stitches and greatly accelerated healing and minimal pain! Our Case Our case involves surgical crown lengthening of a lower molar tooth. It was heavily broken down with minimal sound tooth to place a crown above the gum level. Dr Nissit Patel used the Waterlase i Plus 2.0 to create a ferule to allow a crown preparation on the same day and impressions were taken also. The crown will be fitted in less than two weeks. Just take a look at the post operative photograph: