Erbium lasers in operative dentistry—a literature review

Introduction: Hard tissue modification and cavity preparation addressing the carious lesions of the teeth is the heart of operative dentistry. It is now more than three decades that lasers have been tested and used in caries removal. Twenty-eight years after the first laser construction by Theodore Maiman in 1960, the actual mechanism of thermo-mechanical ablation has been described, and the introduction of erbium lasers in operative dentistry was a reality. A big number of researchers and institutes worldwide have been experimenting the possibilities, limitations, and possible advantages of erbium family lasers (i.e., Er,Cr:YSGG 2790 nm and Er:YAG 2940 nm). Purpose: The aim of this literature review is to summarize evidence-based studies that have been published, trying to clarify the aspects that have been covered so far and simultaneously revealing the parts that need to be tested in future studies. Materials and methods: A systematic bibliographic analysis has been the basis of this literature review on erbium family lasers. The total number of articles that have been screened for this review is 1474. Conclusions: Erbium family lasers have shown their great benefits in different fields of operative dentistry, including painless cavity preparation and caries removal, enamel and dentine modification for bonding and smear layer elimination with respect to pulp tissue. The difference in the parameters of each laser system and the infinite combinations of laser settings that can be selected have led to some contradictive results, which have confused both researchers and clinical dentists. With this review, we try to shed light to the fields that future researchers should focus on. © 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.