Laser education in demand even on Mother's Day

Protec Dental Technologies recently staged a laser education weekend at the Australian Dental Association (NSW Branch) Centre for Professional Development in Sydney. Some 38 dentists attended the event from around Australia and New Zealand.

The 2-day program took maximum advantage of the venue's clinical audio visual capabilities with live demonstrations the order of the day. In one instance, attendees watched in amazement as two cavity preps and a frenectomy was performed on a 5-year-old without local anaesthetic using the Hoya ConBio VersaWave Erbium YAG laser.

"The weekend was designed to educate and demonstrate how lasers can be integrated into the contemporary dental practice," said Tony Tomevski, NSW/ACT Sales Manager for Protec. "There was mix of lectures, live patient demonstrations and hands-on participation by attendees."

On the Saturday, Professor Laurie Walsh from the University of Queensland delivered a presentation on Laser Physics and Safety and Dr Laurie Kobler lectured on the use of hard and soft tissue lasers. The latter included video footage of a post-op interview with the mother of a 5-day old infant treated for Ankyloglossia (Tongue Tie). New Zealand dentist Hisham Abdalla also gave a clinical presentation on the use of lasers in both general and implant dentistry.

On Sunday, several live demonstrations using the VersaWave laser took place including a lingual frenectomy on a 5-year-old; a large cavity prep, hard tissue cutting and mandibular frenum release with no LA performed on a 5-year-old; a complete upper arch smile lift and Gingivectomy on a 23-year-old; and 3 large hard tissue cavity preps with no LA on a 27-year-old. Attendees then participated in a hands-on workshop using lasers on pig's jaws and extracted teeth.

Protec, provided the Hoya ConBio VersaWave Erbium YAG lasers and Diodent II Diode lasers they distribute for dentists to use as well as Seiler operating microscopes.

"The ADA's facility in Sydney is outstanding," Mr Tomevski said. "The course participants were very impressed that they could sit in comfort upstairs and watch such a high quality, multi-camera interactive presentation of live surgery that was occurring on the floor below.

"We also received a lot of very positive feedback on the overall course content and the dentists found the lectures and live clinicals tied in beautifully. They though it was great to finally both learn and see how lasers work at the same event without all the promotional hype."