Temperature distribution in dental tissue after interaction with femtosecond laser pulses.

Algebraic and numerical solutions are presented of the temperature rise in dental tissue due to interaction with ultrashort optical radiation. Results of the studies with femtosecond laser pulses show agreement between theory and experiment. A temperature rise of typically 5 K is found for a 40 millisecond train of 7 nJ, 70 fs laser pulses at a repetition rate of 80 MHz. The peak irradiance in our experimental studies was limited to 3x10(6) W/cm(2). Applications include photoacoustic imaging and tomography of dental tissue.