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Researchers discover way to stop bleeding after an extraction… with a dental curing light.
Every dentist deals with bleeding gums in one way or another. Whether it is bleeding gums during a crown preparation, or following the extraction of a tooth, we see blood pretty often. There have been a lot of hemostatic agents introduced over the years that have done a pretty good job of controlling bleeding. However, nothing is as high tech, or as cool, as a new method discovered by researchers in Tokyo.
At the Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, a blue-violet LED light was used to stop bleeding in the mouth. This wasn’t just a test after someone flossed too hard. They did the test on fresh extractions sockets. Using the LED lights in the spectrum of 380-515nm, they irradiated the sockets for 10 seconds, achieving immediate hemostasis. Compare this to the control which was basically biting down on cotton. This way took 2-5 minutes. Not surprisingly, healing was uneventful. You can check out the abstract here.
Once again, an invention for dentists sounds like something right out of Star Trek. Keep an eye out on Dentalcompare for any future release of an official product, and for your chance to get your very own phaser for your practice.