Accuracy of navigated control concepts using an Er: Yag-laser for cavity preparation

This paper describes a method for measuring the shape accuracy of a cylindrical hole which is created by means of an automatically power-controlled laser system using navigated control. In dental surgery, drills or mills are used for bone treatment. For most patients the use of these instruments is very inconvenient. Furthermore, the bone treatment with rotating instruments can lead to thermal necrosis. Using a laser system could be a good alternative for the patient. The utilization of a laser system could also facilitate bone treatment without any severe thermal damage. An optical navigation system can be used for a safer handling of a laser system. The position and the orientation of the laser handpiece relative to the patient can be calculated. Thereby, the laser can be automatically switched off, if the end of the laser beam does not hit the preoperative planned area. In order to measure the accuracy of such a laser system, we created several cavities in a phantom with a manually guided, automatically power-controlled laser. Afterwards, the deviation between the planned shape and the shape created by manually guided automatically power-controlled laser treatment has been measured. The application of this system showed, that the required accuracy of <1 mm for dental implantology applications, could not be reached.