Small-Town Dentist Sees Big Benefits from Lasers

Dental Arts Group is not a typical small-town operation, however. The practice has 19 operatories, and while the Blaichs are general dentists, they handle most of their own placements and restorations for implants.

As John prioritizes innovation with the goal of providing the best patient care possible, they also use state-of-the-art technology. That is how he began using lasers.

In 2015, Blaich attended a lecture on crown lengthening at the Thomas P. Hinman Dental Meeting, and part of the course involved laser surgery. Blaich was already using diode lasers, but he wanted to learn about multi-tissue lasers, and the instructor showed him how easy they made crown lengthening. After subsequent research and phone calls to colleagues who were using lasers, Blaich purchased a Waterlase all-tissue laser from BIOLASE in the autumn of 2015.

Blaich says he was primarily interested in using the Waterlase for soft-tissue crown lengthening and gingival procedures, but he ended up also using it for restorative procedures when anesthetics were not an option. In his first year with the Waterlase, Blaich used it for 1422 restorations (352 Class I, 419 Class II, 481 Class III/IV, 170 Class V), all without anesthesia; 176 teeth treated for periodontal disease; 34 crown-lengthening procedures to include coronal bone height reduction; 23 frenectomies; and 106 miscellaneous procedures, such as ulcers and troughing. He has not used an anesthetic for an anterior restoration since purchasing the laser, and he can complete most procedures in approximately the amount of time it would have taken just to numb the patient.

“The wavelength is perfect for both hard- and soft-tissue applications,” Blaich says. “It performs beautifully.”

Other benefits include the fact that the laser cools the target tissue instead of heating it, the handpiece does not vibrate, and daily maintenance is simple.

In the future, Blaich expects to use the laser increasingly for failing implants.

“As implant placement increases, implant periodontitis will become more common,” he says. “The Waterlase has a REPAIR Implant™ protocol that I have been using to treat these cases. With a laser, I can treat the threads of an implant without damaging them. And the Biolase Waterlase can place water and air on the target structure to cool it during the procedure. It is fantastic.”

The laser also has allowed Blaich to treat some patients who he otherwise could not have. One young adult with Down Syndrome had never been able to pronounce the “D” sound before a lingual frenectomy, and her mother told Blaich she was ecstatically saying certain words over and over after the procedure. Another patient was a Korean War veteran who could not take anesthetics. Another, who had Asperger Syndrome, panicked around syringes, but remained calm through seven restorations with the laser.

“It is totally stress-free,” Blaich says. “BIOLASE has created a product that is better for the patient and also good for me because it takes a lot of stress off me when the patient is calm.”

The word has spread around town, which has been good for business.

“My referral base is growing without really advertising because so many people are realizing they don’t need to have a shot to get their restorations done,” Blaich says. “BIOLASE developed an educational program that increased my knowledge about the treatment of diseases that I didn’t really want to address previously, but now I have the technology to do so.”

As a result, the small-town family practice is thriving as a cutting-edge operation.

“I have been in dentistry for more than 30 years,” Blaich says, “and I am enjoying it more now than I ever have before. That is not something a lot of people can say.”

For more information, contact:
BIOLASE, Inc.
888-424-6527
biolase.com