Laser sources in dentistry and radiation safety regulations

Nowadays laser sources are largely adopted in dentistry due to their unique properties making them good candidates to substitute traditional scalpel and conventional diamond bur in the surgery of the soft and hard oral tissue, respectively. The large use of laser sources outside the research laboratories without the need of highly specialized personnel can ask for a widespread knowledge of safety issues related to this kind of equipment. The main hazard of accidental exposures regards eyes injury but increasing the power of the laser beam also skin can be involved. Safety legislations in Europe and U.S.A. take into account non ionizing radiations and laser radiation for the hazards for the health deriving from physical agents. Laser safety standards introduce 3 useful parameters for hazard characterization: "Accessible Emission Limit" (AEL), "Maximum Permissible Exposure" (MPE) and "Nominal Ocular Hazard Distance" (NOHD). We measured the MPE and NOHD for Er:YAG and other laser sources currently adopted in dentistry and we compared our results with data elaborated from standards in order to single out safe and comfortable working conditions. In fact an experimental assessment of the hazard parameters and the comparison with those of reference from safety standards turns out to be useful in order to estimate the residual hazard that can be still present after applying all the engineering protection and administrative rules.