Dental and medical treatments and procedures
AssigneePipstek, LLC
InventorsEnrico E. DiVito, Douglas L. Glover, Kemmons A. Tubbs, Mark P. Colonna
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method treating a root canal in a tooth by introducing into the pulp chamber of a tooth and pulsing a laser light into the fluid reservoir so as to disintegrate pulp within the root canal without generation of any significant heat in said liquid fluid so as to avoid elevating the temperature of any of the dentin, tooth, or other adjacent tissue more than about 5° C.
Claims31
-13. (canceled)
A method for cleaning a root canal of a tooth, the method comprising:
- delivering a treatment liquid into the root canal;
- inserting a tip of an optical fiber into the treatment liquid within the root canal, the optical fiber extending along a fiber axis;
- pulsing laser light along the optical fiber to the tip;
- and
- directing at least a portion of the laser light laterally outwardly relative to the fiber axis into the treatment liquid, the laterally directed light having sufficient power to create photoacoustic waves in the treatment liquid of sufficient vibrational energy to remove at least biotic material from a wall of the root canal.
A method for cleaning a root canal of a tooth, the method comprising:
- delivering a treatment liquid into the root canal;
- inserting a tip of an optical fiber into the treatment liquid within the root canal, the optical fiber extending along a fiber axis;
- pulsing laser light along the optical fiber to the tip and into the treatment liquid;
- and
- producing photoacoustic waves in the treatment liquid with energy provided by the pulsed laser light, at least a portion of the photoacoustic waves propagating laterally outwardly relative to the fiber axis, the photoacoustic waves of sufficient vibrational energy to remove at least biotic material from a wall of the root canal.
A method for cleaning a root canal of a tooth, the root canal comprising a main root canal and a plurality of accessory canals that branch from the main root canal, the method comprising:
- delivering a treatment liquid into the root canal;
- inserting a tip of an optical fiber into the treatment liquid within the root canal, the optical fiber extending along a fiber axis;
- pulsing laser light along the optical fiber to the tip;
- and
- directing at least a portion of the laser light laterally outwardly relative to the fiber axis into the treatment liquid, the laterally directed light having sufficient power to create photoacoustic waves in the treatment liquid of sufficient vibrational energy to remove at least biotic material from a wall of the main root canal and the accessory root canals without requiring the tip of the optical fiber to be inserted into the plurality of accessory canals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.