Laser treatment of dental ceramic/cement layers: transmitted energy, temperature effects and surface characterisation

In the present paper, we investigate the behaviour of different dental materials under laser irradiation. We have used e.max Ceram, e.max ZirCAD, and e.max Press dental ceramics and glass ionomer cement Ketac Cem in the present study. The dental ceramics were prepared in the form of samples with thickness of 0.5-2 mm. We used two lasers [solid-state laser (Er:YAG, Fidelis III+, Fotona) and an 810- nm diode laser (FOX, A.R.C)] for the transillumination of ceramic samples. It has been shown that the laser energy transmitted through the ceramic material decreases to 30-40% of the original values along with an increase in the thickness of the irradiated sample. Pigmented ceramic samples show more laser energy loss compared to the samples containing no pigment. We investigated the temperature evolution in composite sandwiched ceramic/cement samples under laser treatment. The increase in the irradiation time and laser power led to a temperature increase of up to 80 °C. The surfaces of irradiated ceramic samples were examined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to evaluate changes in chemical composition, such as a decrease in the C signal, accompanied by a strong increase in the Zr peak for the Er:YAG laser, while the 810-nm diode laser showed no change in the ratio of elements on the surface.