The Solea CO2 laser shines again 😎 I’d like to share a “simple” case here of a patient who presented with ‘kissing’ mandibular tori. He complained not only of these tori getting scraped up constantly but of food and other debris getting lodged between and under these large chunks of bone! Also, if you’re interested in performing these sort of hard tissue procedures with your laser, please check out our Level 3 course in October.
In my pre-laser days, I would have offered this patient the option of going to see our oral surgeon down the road (well, 30 minutes down the road). Often times though, I’d get a lot of push-back from patients who preferred to be treated in our practice...and if not they’d simply choose to continue to deal with the discomfort/inconvenience of tori like these.
But my laser changed this altogether and boosted my confidence in informing patients that I could take care of bothersome tori like these in our practice. If you haven’t had the chance to cut through bone with a CO2 laser, I’d recommend trying it out sometime (...maybe at the next big dental conference). I haven’t found a tool that cuts through bone in a more satisfying, clean and effortless way than my laser.
Laser tori removal technique is fairly straightforward - at least conceptually. Lay a flap that allows you to visualize the entire tori mass. Make your laser “incisions” at the base of the tori, minding your CBCT measurements (make measurements with a probe in between cutting if you have any uncertainties). You’re really aiming to cut about 90% of the way through the tori, which will then allow you to use an instrument like an elevator to fracture the small remaining section of bone and thus dislodge the tori. The final step before suturing is smoothing out any rough bony edges. And voila, the patient’s tongue is set free!
The more bone-related procedures I perform with my CO2 laser, the more I fall in love with it as a truly versatile instrument and the more I continue to find hidden ROI from an instrument I had initially purchased for anesthetic free fillings and maybe some soft tissue procedures. #MOREthanAFilling is an understatement!
Thanks for reading; I hope you found this case helpful. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or send them directly to us!