90% of patients who have fillings don’t require a shot. 

I sometimes numb upper back teeth since the shot there hurts so little, and the laser is hardest to use there.  Teeth with pre-existing mercury fillings sometimes need a shot since only the drill can remove the metal, but I can often numb the tooth with the laser and then take out the metal with the drill.  People from 14 to 24 are the ones who most often need a shot for fillings.  Their teeth are maximum sensitive and the sensation of me working on their teeth often bothers them emotionally separate from any pain they may feel.

The waterlase is much safer than a drill.

A dentist with a drill is not a dangerous entity, but it only takes an instant for a drill to mutilate a person severely.  This is yet another reason why the laser is a natural for young children.  It is quite hard to accidentally harm someone with the laser while doing a filling.  The laser tip is designed to break before any damage would be done to the mouth.

The waterlase is very eye-safe

The energy does not remain collimated after it leaves the handpiece.  So the cutting part of the beam is very short, only a quarter of an inch at the highest power setting.  The beam can even char a piece of paper on one side and leave the other side pristine! (If the Shroud of Turin was faked, it was with a Waterlase!) But the dentist never chars any tissue.  Almost all other lasers require special colored glasses for all in the room to wear.  With the waterlase no special eye wear beyond what all offices already use is more than protection enough.  The laser energy of the waterlase does not penetrate  tissue like all other lasers do, and it does not reflect off shiny metal either.  This characteristic gives it the pain free properties that are its unique domain.  To be more specific, the energy is absorbed by whatever Hydrogen-Oxygen bond is present.   Be it in the water spray, the surface of the gums, the plastic in the eye-wear, or the “hydroxyapatite” in the tooth.  This makes it the safest laser ever invented.  Safer than a $3.00 laser pointer put into the hands of a child!   It also makes it not useful for spider vein treatment, hair removal, and whitening teeth.  The color of the light is what gives any laser its properties.  But because it is after all, a cutting tool, it must be sold and used only by a trained dentist.  Physicians don’t have access to this laser…yet!
 

Gum treatments never require a shot.

The waterlase lets me treat and save teeth I used to have to send to a specialist for surgery.  And I can always treat them without a shot.  Gum disease has never been more simple and easy to treat successfully.  Gone are the  bandage, stitch, needle, or scalpel.  In many cases the treatments can be repeated to give an unprecedented level of rehabilitation which has never been possible before.

Tissue surgery never requires a needle. 

Tongue-tied children are a favorite for me to treat.  Removing excess tissue is done without bleeding, stitches, scalpel, or shot.  The tissue simply goes away.  And the first thing to “leave the scene” are the germs, so the laser makes a sterile cut, and leaves a mostly pain free surgery site.  A surgeon can make a very significant laser incision simply by using an irrigating anesthetic if he needs to.  Healing is dramatically faster with a laser incision.

Gummy smiles are fixed immediately.

People who have this treatment return to work immediately.  Ten minutes after the treatment you can’t tell that the gums haven’t always been that way.  A shot is never required.

Fever blisters and mouth ulcers are treatable now.

Early intervention of fever blisters prevents the outbreak from happening at all.  Later treatment takes a week off the duration of the outbreak and relieves the pain of the ulcer immediately.  Both germs and exposed nerve endings are eliminated from the sore instantly.

Sensitive teeth are immediately and permanently cured.

“Sensodyne” toothpaste is obsolete.  A 10-second laser treatment cures any sensitive roots you may have due to exposed dentin.

Fillings done with the laser are 70% stronger bonded than those done with the drill alone.

Every filling I do gets the laser “etch” at least to make it both stronger and more invisible than any comparable filling done with the drill only.  I have eliminated metal fillings from my practice due to the superior strength and reinforcement that “laser fillings” have.  These fillings are automatically “super-etched”, desensitized and sterilized by the laser energy.

Every filling is both sterilized under the filling and into the surface of the tooth. 

The tooth structure beneath the decay which still remains hard, but does contain cavity germs is sterilized by the laser energy as the decay is removed..  No other instrument can accomplish this.

Fillings are smaller when the laser is used. 

I don’t have to remove as much sound tooth structure as I did when I used mercury fillings.  The fillings are strongly glued into the tooth creating “plywood” compared to the “brick in a wall” which is a metal filling.  The fillings are able to be both stronger and more invisible.  If new decay starts it is immediately visible.

Twice as many defects in teeth can be filled with the laser as could be filled with the drill.
 
Because of the superior bond strength of the laser etch, teeth which could not be filled successfully using the drill can be filled using the laser.  And these new areas are the least likely to require a shot.

Root canals are often done from start to finish with the laser.

Every root canal gets at least a finishing touch with the laser to sterilize the root before filling.  This reaches three times as deep into the tooth as the bleach, which most dentists use.  And the laser also kills any residual branching nerve endings which metal instruments can’t reach, making laser root canals less likely to be painful after treatment.

I use another laser to detect decay at its earliest stages.
 
I can both find decay early with it, and by probing a tooth which looks decayed but is not,  avoid needlessly filling a sound but stained tooth.  It replaces the “iron hook” which has been the standard since the Roman Empire. This laser is absolutely painless.