If you need to get a cavity filled, you can now choose a dentist who offers laser dentistry. While most dentists use an old-fashioned drill, a recent trend is for dentists to use lasers because they are far less painful, don't require anesthetics, and remove less of your tooth!

Most patients shrink into their chair at the sight and sound of drills. Even with anesthetic like lidocaine (which is always required for drilling), patients still feel the pain of the drill.

Lasers on the other hand work by heating water molecules in the tooth, that then get excited and remove the decayed part of the tooth. While drills can create microfractures as they spin at hundreds of thousands of RPM (rotations per minute), laser shoots air and water to keep the tooth cool. Because drills spin so quickly, and they create a lot of heat that causes damage (and pain!) to the surrounding nerves. Lasers also don't create the disgusting odor that drilling does.

While lasers do in fact cause less pain than traditional drilling, you can't find them in every dentist's office. One major reason why lasers aren't everywhere is that they cost the dentist more, as they cost many tens of thousands of dollars (~$50k). Drills on the other hand cost dentists between $500-$1,000.