Comparative bactericidal exposures for selected oral bacteria using carbon dioxide laser radiation.

Although relatively high CO2 laser energies have been shown to sterilize root canals, the response of several bacterial strains to decreasing exposures of CO2 laser energy remains unknown. Freshly grown bacterial cells were irradiated on glass microscope coverslips. A comparison of equivalent energy exposures with differing parameters was made on the bacterial viability. No statistically significant difference was found in the energy required to kill closely related bacterial species. However, the energy density required to kill greater than 99.5% of the bacteria is less than 200 J/cm2, much less than that shown to sterilize in a previous study.