Laser Cavity Detector
In 2001, I bought a new laser scanner called a Diagnodent. Its purpose is to detect cavities that can't be detected by an explorer (a dental pick device) or on X-rays. It is the greatest advance in dental diagnostics since the invention of x-rays.
The laser scanner is very accurate in detecting cavities. Patients often do not like having their teeth picked with the dental explorer. Now it can be determined if those dark areas, the pit and fissure areas, in your teeth, are cavities, without having to probe into your teeth. It can detect new cavities years before any other means of cavity detectors. The laser scanner shines a harmless beam of light onto the tooth. If a cavity (decay) is present, even in small amounts, it will be reflected back at the sensor in the laser.
To help us determine the cavity status of the pits and fissures, you may hold the machine if you want. You can watch and listen to the readings for each tooth. As the laser detects a cavity in a tooth, the reading goes higher and the noise becomes more obvious!
There is not a single device in Dentistry that is more accurate in detecting cavities than the Diagnodent. Let me tell you how this machine has amazed me. A situation that I recall vividly was a 14 year old patient with great home care and diet controlled monthly by her mom. I observed perfectly white pits and fissures and couldn't get an explorer to stick anywhere and the X-rays did not reveal a problem. And yet the Diagnodent read a 74 (it can read up to 99) on one of the teeth! When I prepared the tooth, it immediately fell into an inverse mushroom cloud of mush! Thank goodness we did save the tooth without a root canal!
This laser scanner allows cavities to be found much earlier than with a dental pick! The result? No more large fillings especially in children (if recalls are every 6 months)! Don't you wish we had it when we were children? The Diagnodent will be used today. Please ask if you have questions.
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