[Laser in contemporary dentistry]

In the 30 years of laser history the oral cavity application has always played an important role. In the laboratory diagnostics the analysis of the saliva, tissues and hard dental tissues is performed by laser. In the clinical diagnostics the laser is used for examining the caries, dental matter, in orthodontics, in the surgical analysis of splanchnocranium and the teeth. The photodynamic treatment involves the diagnostic and therapeutic use of the lasers in the management of oral cavity cancers. The soft laser therapy is widely applied in diseases of the oral mucosa, parodontal and pain syndromes, temporomandibular articular diseases, dental inflammations, salivary gland diseases and in osseal healing processes. The surgical lasers are applied in the treatment of teeth, in preprosthetic surgery, salivary gland diseases, precancerous conditions, tumour surgery and in the surgery of hemophilic patients, respectively. In the 90s one cannot speak about modern oral surgery or dentistry without the application of lasers. Though in various fields the research is merely in initial phase (holography, caries-treatment, photodynamic therapy, etc.), the lasers are becoming an indispensable (treatment of precancerous conditions, hemophilic patients, diseases of the oral mucosa, etc.). The oral surgical use of lasers might bring about fundamental changes in diagnosis and treatment, becoming a new professional branch, opening up new vistas, representing "future" today. The invention of lasers in 1960 and their broad dissemination in oral surgery and dentistry since 1980 have resulted in basic changes in numerous diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. The medical use of lasers is of such an extent that it can well justifiably regarded as a new branch of science namely the laser medicine. This considerably relates to stomatology, too.