Laser cavity detection is used to remove doubt regarding unseen cavities that don’t appear on x-ray or even during the normal clinical exam. The Diagnodent device shines a low power laser into the tooth and based on the tooth’s fluorescence gives a number that is interpreted by Dr. Martinez as to the suitability for restoration.
What is the DIAGNOdent actually measuring?
The DIAGNOdent measures laser fluorescence within the tooth structure. As the incident laser light is propagated into the site, two-way handpiece optics allows the unit to simultaneously quantify the reflected laser light energy. At the specific wavelength that the DIAGNOdent laser operates, clean healthy tooth structure exhibits little or no fluorescence, resulting in very low scale readings on the display. However, carious tooth structure will exhibit fluorescence, proportionate to the degree of caries, resulting in elevated scale readings on the display.
Benefits:
• Permits use of minimally invasive treatments without unnecessary preparation.
• For the first time, allows the quantification of caries activity over time with a precise and reliable measurement.
• Reproducible results permit checking, stabilization and documentation of caries.
• Ideal device for the hygienist to detect suspicious areas needing further examination.
• Is conservative by avoiding “exploratory” excavation of suspect teeth.
• Extremely accurate diagnostic aid. Proven to be over 90% accurate.
• Early detection of pathological changes that are undiagnosed by conventional examination methods (e.g. initial lesions, demineralization and changes in the enamel, fissure caries).
• No scratching probe: simple, fast and painless examination.
• Increases operator and patient confidence about treatment decisions due to accurate visual and acoustic representation of measured values.
• No x-ray exposure.
How it works
Conventional detection vs. Diagnodent
