Discover Laser Dentistry to Leave Pain & Drills Behind
Fotona’s LightWalker dental laser performs general dentistry, surgery, sleep apnea therapy, and more without noisy drills and painful anesthesia injections—paving the way for practices to offer patients a variety of innovative treatments
Dentists point to 2 causes of patient anxiety: fear of the drill and fear of the needle. Eliminate those fears and the obvious result is
happier patients, and more of them. That has certainly been the case for Harvey Shiffman, DDS, who maintains the Boynton Laser Dental Center in Boynton Beach, FL.
“The reason I began using lasers in dentistry was because I wanted to find a way to make the patient experience better, and this was a way to do general dentistry without the needles and the drills,” Dr. Shiffman shared, adding that when he does fillings on his patients, he hardly ever needs to use anesthesia. “The sound of the laser is also much more calming than a drill running at 300,000 rpms,” he said.
Improved Treatment Outcomes
Laser treatment patients report a more pleasant procedure without the stressful noise of a dental drill, along with less pain, no need for anesthesia, quicker recovery times, and improved treatment outcomes. Additionally, in the 20 years since he first began using laser dentistry, Dr. Shiffman has witnessed a constantly increasing list of both restorative and cosmetic treatments now possible with dental lasers—and that list appears to get longer by the day.
Dr. Shiffman’s laser of choice is Fotona’s LightWalker Hard and Soft Tissue Dental Laser, a state-of-the-art, high-performance laser that is the world’s only machine with 2 complementary dental wavelengths—1,064 nm and 2,940 nm—that are produced by solid state crystal laser sources. LightWalker features Fotona’s proprietary Variable Square Pulse (VSP) technology, a feature that raises the laser’s precision, performance, and safety to the highest level in the industry. With VSP, clinicians can control the laser pulse duration and fluence depending on each specific treatment, all with just a touch of a button.
“The reason I began using lasers in dentistry was because I wanted to find a way to make the patient experience better, and this was a way to do general dentistry without the needles and the drills.”
- Harvey Shiffman, DDS
From Fillings to Facial Esthetics
“The LightWalker is a full-service hard and soft tissue dental laser that’s very versatile—there’s no other laser on the market today that can do what LightWalker can do,” Dr. Shiffman explained. “I use it for our fillings, root canals, periodontal surgery, biopsies, facial esthetics, lip enhancement, gum depigmentation, exposing permanent teeth on young children, removing orthodontic brackets, TMJ, and facial pain,” he added.
Word travels fast, and Dr. Shiffman believes the LightWalker has been a driving factor in his busier workflow. He also points to an increase in special patient populations who historically have a more difficult time in the dental chair because of noise sensitivities, including children, individuals with special needs, and the elderly. Overall, the higher number of patients coming in for dental treatment, as well as the innovative cosmetic treatments he can now offer as a result of using LightWalker, have had a very positive impact on his practice’s ROI.
A Proven Practice Booster
“People ask me about ROI on laser equipment and I tell them that if you’re doing things you weren’t able to do before laser dentistry—treatments that you were previously forced to refer out—your ROI is a non-issue. For example, in my practice, I can offer SmoothLase protocols, which are facial esthetic procedures performed from inside the mouth that allow us to rejuvenate the facial muscles and tissues, essentially turning back the clock on facial aging,” he explained.
Alternative Treatment For Sleep Disorders
One particularly popular laser treatment that Dr. Shiffman offers is the NightLase snoring treatment, a therapy that reduces the effects of snoring by using a gentle, laser-induced tightening that’s caused by the contraction of collagen in the oral mucosa tissue. A simple procedure for any dentist to perform, NightLase therapy is a non-invasive and patient-friendly way to improve sleep quality.
An expert on NightLase protocols for the past decade, Dr. Shiffman uses his LightWalker laser to build non-ablative heat generation that converts existing collagen to more elastic and organized forms. This elevates the soft palate and uvula and tightens the oropharyngeal tissues—significantly improving the patient’s upper airway volume.
“I tell my patients that NightLase is a non-surgical alternative to common sleep apnea treatments such as CPAP machines and dental devices, and there’s no injections and zero pain,” he explained.
Safe, Gentle, and Therapeutic
According to Dr. Shiffman, CPAP machines can reduce apnea by about 75%, but only when the device is worn 7 nights a week for 7 hours with a very tight-fitting mask—a scenario that rarely happens for most patients. In fact, the average CPAP compliance is 4 nights a week and 4 hours a night, and after 3 years, studies show the reduction in sleep apnea drops to only 30%. Dental devices, on average, lower apnea by about 50% with perfect compliance, which is also rare, and many of these patients suffer jaw problems and changes in their bite and tooth alignment.
“NightLase is safe, gentle, and therapeutic. It helps the airway tissues function better, and with our open-ended treatment planning, we’re getting 100% of our patients to be within a healthy range without using other modalities like CPAP machines or oral devices,” he explained. “My patients love it!”
Advanced-Level Training
Dental technology like lasers can be intimidating to clinicians just starting out, but Fotona provides advanced-level training courses in periodontics, NightLase therapy, endodontics, root canal treatments, and facial esthetics. “Fotona also offers a 3-day training course, and for any clinician who embraces technology, I believe the learning curve is very short,” Dr. Shiffman concluded.
To learn more about Fotona's line of laser equipment, go to www.fotona.com/us.
