Treatment of dental decay by CO2 laser beam: preliminary results.

Results obtained from two clinical cases, representative of 1,140 human teeth treated by CO2 laser beam during 3 years, announce a new conception of treatment of dental caries. The beam (P = 4 - 5 W, energy density of 9 to 25 kw/cm2) causes a dentin healing which becomes sterile, chemically and physically more resistant than pathological dentin. In addition, this exposure leads to an activation of the dentinogenesis supported by X-ray, confirming histo-pathological results obtained from experiments performed on animals.