One of the biggest advantages for patients is the minimal amount of pain. With conventional drilling instruments, removing caries can be painful. With the Er: YAG laser that pain is minimal. Another huge plus is that there is no pressure or unwanted sounds. Sometimes the sounds are the factor that really turns patients away, so thanks to this laser there is almost no sound. The procedure is much shorter, which benefits both the patient and the dentist. A lot of patients feel less anxiety when dentists work with lasers for some reasons. Lasers provide a field with less bleeding and fewer bacteria. They remove only the decayed parts of the tooth, which saves more dental tissue.
The Er: YAG Laser (erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser, erbium YAG laser) is a great advancement in dentistry used for a number of different procedures mostly on hard dental tissues.
The Er: YAG is a solid-state laser that has a wavelength of 2940 nm, making it a part of the infrared light group of lasers. Lasers are today a very important part of dentistry. The Erbium lasers were first approved by the FDA for use on enamel and dentin back in 1997. Since then, technology has developed a lot, and today many dental offices already own their lasers. The work with the Er: YAG laser on hard dental tissues is extremely helpful and more pleasant for patients compared to the conventional dental procedures.