• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.231-236
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• 1999

Understanding the exgenous water induced thermomechanical effect on the dental hard tissue by the Q-switched Er:YAG laser (1-$mutextrm{s}$-long pulse width) has an important impact on the further understanding of the free-running Er:YAG laser (250-$mutextrm{s}$-long pulse width) ablation on the dental gard tissue because one macroscopic effect in the free-running laser is an accumulation of microscopic effects we investigated in this study. The Q-switched Er:YAG laser with exogenous water on the tooth enhanced ablation rate compared to the case of no water on the tooth. The frequency of exogenous-water jet on the tooth has affected the ablation rate in such a way that as we dispensed water drops less frequently we could get more enhanced ablation rate. The amplitude of the recoil pressure depends on the tooth surface conditions such that as surfaces wet, and as the volume of the exogenous water drop increased, the amplitude of the recoil pressure increased also. From this study we realized that the 1 $mutextrm{s}$ long pulsed induced thermomechanical effect provides us useful information for the understanding of the free-running Er:YAG laser induced ablation with exogenous water.