A clinical study of the power control of Nd : YAG laser for painless irradiation on intraoral soft tissues

구강내 연조직에 대한 무통적조사를 위한 Nd:YAG laser의 출력조절에 관한 임상적 연구

Most dentists are very interested in laser therapy on the intraoral soft tissue lesions because they want to accomplish the analgesic and aseptic surgery with little or no bleeding. In order to determine the difference of pain threshold according to different gingival tissues with or without inflammation, 25 patients with inflammatory periodontal disease and 10 volunteers with good general and oral health were selected as the inflamed group and the normal group, respectively. Interdental papilla, marginal gingiva, attached gingiva, and alveolar mucosa were irradiated by the contact delivery($300{\mu]m$ fiber optic, for 5 seconds) of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser(EN.EL.EN06O, Italy). And the laser power was gradually increased from 0.5W by the increment of 0.1W. The highest laser power was recorded as the first painful power when the painful gesture was recognized at first. The difference of the first painful power of laser according to different gingival tissues with or without inflammation was statistically analyzed by paired t-test in MICROSTAT program. Following results were obtained: 1. In the comparison related with the inflammation, the first painful power was significantly lower in the inflamed group than in the normal group, regardless of interdental papilla and marginal gingiva(p<0.05). 2. In the comparison related with the tissue structure, the first painful. power was significantly lower in alveolar mucosa than in attached gingiva(p<0.05). The results suggest that, for the painless therapy by a pulsed-Nd:YAG laser irradiation, the laser surgery over 2.0W of power should be necessarily accomplished under the local anethesia, and the local anesthesia should be considered according to the degree of inflammation, the tissue structure, and the purpose of laser therapy.