Root canal therapy is one of the most common endodontic treatments, but it's also the dental treatment most people fear most. Dentists always try to make it painless, however, sometimes patients may experience mild pain and discomfort. With the advent of lasers in endodontics, root canal treatment is no longer a dreaded dental procedure. Laser-assisted root canal therapy has been shown to be more beneficial than traditional root canal treatments in terms of pain and disinfection. The effectiveness of root canal treatment depends on effective disinfection of the root canal.
Traditional root canal treatment is to clean and disinfect the root canal through mechanical debridement and chemical agents such as chlorhexidine and sodium hypochlorite. This chemomechanical approach may not always achieve complete sterilization, which can lead to reinfection and root canal failure. Lasers are used to complement these chemo-mechanical methods to ensure complete disinfection of the root canal. Lasers are primarily used to control infection and create a sterile atmosphere in infected root canals.
In laser root canal treatment, a parallel beam of light enters the root canal. The intense energy present in the light kills the bacteria present in the root canal and removes all debris and dead tissue thereby sterilizing the root canal. This takes less time, is more effective, and is painless than traditional methods.
The laser has a bactericidal effect and emits high beam energy to achieve root canal sterilization. Therefore, they are used to effectively remove debris and necrotic tissue from root canals. Also, lasers are used in endodontic surgery because it provides a bloodless field and requires fewer sutures.
Use of Soft Tissue Diode Laser is recommended as a final step of root canal disinfection (Laser activated disinfection/LAI) before root canal obturation in single
visit endodontics or before giving intra canal dressing in case of multiple visit endodontics.
