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Ablation of human carious dentin with a nanosecond pulsed laser at a wavelength of 5.85 μm: relationship between hardness and ablation depth

Less invasive treatment and preservation of teeth, referred to as minimal intervention, are strong requirements in dentistry. In our previous study, the fundamental ablation properties of human dentin at wavelengths around 5.8 μm were investigated, and the results indicated that the wavelength of 5.85 μm was optimal for selective removal of carious dentin with less damage to normal dentin. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the ablation depth and hardness of human dentin including carious lesion. A nanosecond pulsed laser produced by difference-frequency generation was used for irradiations to human carious dentin. It was observed that correlation between ablation depth and Vickers hardness after 2 s laser irradiation at the wavelength of 5.85 μm and the average power density of 30 W/cm2. On the other hand, ablations did not depend on Vickers hardness at the wavelength of 6.00 μm. A nanosecond pulsed laser with the wavelength at 5.85 μm is useful for selective ablation of human carious dentin in accordance with the hardness.