Related Experiment Videos
Pulpal response to exposure with Er:YAG laser
J A Jayawardena1, J Kato, K Moriya
1Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan. asiri.pedo@dent.tmd.ac.jp
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the pulpal response to the Er:YAG laser after accidental exposure of the pulp.
Study Design:
Cavities were prepared, and pulps were exposed by either Er:YAG laser or mechanically by a slow-speed conventional handpiece (control group) in 76 maxillary first molars of male Wistar rats. Rats were killed immediately, at 3 days, 1 week, and 2 weeks. Histopathologic examinations of the pulp at the exposure site were performed and evaluated with the Mann-Whitney U test (P <.05).
Results:
The Er:YAG laser group showed no bleeding and no dentin chips at the exposure site immediately after pulp exposure. However, they displayed an area of blood extravasation near the exposure site. Subsequently, the Er:YAG laser group formed dentin bridges at the exposure site more frequently than the control group. The Er:YAG laser group demonstrated more reparative dentin formation near the exposure site than the control group, especially at 2 weeks, which was highly significant (P <.01).
Conclusion:
According to the results of this study, Er:YAG laser-exposed pulp tissue demonstrated good healing capacity with the formation of a dentin bridge and reparative dentin. However, further investigations are suggested to study the effect of the blood extravasation, which appeared near the laser exposure sites.