Benefits of Laser Use to Patient, Dentist, Practice and Staff
The rapid recent growth in the utilization of lasers by the American dental community is the result of dentist’s awareness and acceptance of an overwhelming number of laser benefits to the patient, the dentist and the practice. Journal articles, respected clinician speakers and word of mouth have all served to spread the good news. What are these benefits?
1. Patient Benefits
In the end, dentistry is all about the patient and so for a new technology to gain rapid and widespread acceptance, the patient must benefit. Here’s how patients benefit from laser usage:
- Fear of needles: The best performing dental lasers can be used to perform almost all common cavity preparation procedures without the need for patient anesthesia. Patients don’t like injections, even when they don’t hurt!
- Dislike of numbness: Patients prefer not to become numb or leave the dental practice after a procedure numb. And, many patients feel anxious from physiological reactions to commonly used anesthetics. A high performance dental laser eliminates this negative.
- Dislike of drill noise and vibration: Highspeed handpiece cavity preparation involves significant objectionable noise and vibration for the patient and they dislike it. The sound of a laser is not objectionable and no vibration is transmitted to the patient as the tip of the laser never even needs to contact the tooth!
- One stop shopping- General dentists find that ownership of a good quality laser with soft tissue surgery capability allows them to perform many more soft tissue procedures more simply, with little or no bleeding post operative due to a laser’s ability to coagulate as it cuts. This means referring their patients less to specialists. Patients prefer to have their dental procedures performed by the general dentist they know and trust and dislike referral to a strange specialist. Add to this that many soft tissue laser procedures can be performed without anesthetic and dislike of needles and numbness comes into play again.
- Preservation of healthy tooth structure: In general cavity preparations performed with lasers preserve more healthy tooth structure while avoiding the micro-cracking of healthy enamel associated with dental handpiece use.
- Less post operative discomfort: Many laser procedures result in less post operative discomfort for the patient.
- Better Overall Care- Equiped with laser technology, the dentist is armed with more and better treatment options than without a laser, resulting in delivery of the very best, state of the art care possible for the patient.
The positive impact of these benefits on how patients perceive their dentist and their dental care experience is dramatic.
2. Dentist Benefits
The dramatic positive impact on the patient’s comfort and the perception of his or her dentist and dental care translates into benefits for the dentist:
- Less stress- delivering pain free, shot free, drill whine and vibration free dentistry is less stressful for the dentist. The patient anxiety associated with traditional shot, numbness, drill procedures is perceived by the attentive dentist and the dentist struggles to mitigate patient anxiety resulting in stress for the dentist himself. Eliminate patient anxiety through laser dentistry, and stress melts away- for dentist and staff.
- Dentistry becomes fun- Eliminate patient anxiety, eliminate dentist and staff stress, exceed patient expectations, and the result is fun! Dentists cite this positive benefit of laser usage over and over again in surveys.
- Improved dentist self esteem- Delighted patients and positive feedback from staff results in the dentist recognizing that he has raised the standard of care for his patients and elevated patient comfort to a new level. The dentist feels like a hero and knows he has made a fantastic decision for his patients and his practice. He looks forward to going to work in the morning and is proud to be a dentist!
3. Practice Benefits
As if the previously described dramatic benefits to the patient and the dentist personally were not enough, benefits to the practice also need to be considered:
- New patient attraction and patient retention: Patients whose expectations have been exceeded by no shot, no numbness cavity preparations and other advanced laser treatment options not only stay with their laser dentist, they tell their friends, family and coworkers about it resulting in new patient referrals.
- Eliminating most patient anesthetic and the chair time occupied by waiting for onset results in better patient throughput and a boost to practice efficiency. The new free chair time can be filled with new patients, new soft and hard tissue laser procedures or more free time for the dentist
- Performing other common procedures with a laser boosts practice efficiency. For example, the laser allows fast and simple coagulation and bleeding control when needed during any procedure
- Increased practice efficiency, new patients, and new soft and hard tissue procedures, all add up to increased practice income. Increased practice income can be used to keep your practice state of the art across all areas and to improve you and your staffs’ standard of living.
In summary, this exhaustive list of benefits associated with laser dentistry is what is driving dentists to use lasers nationwide and worldwide.