Air Abrasion

There ought to be a more attractive name for air abrasion: it sounds a scrape, but in fact it’s the most wonderful invention in decades for patients who hate dental drills. And that would be about 100% of the patients I’ve seen in my 25 years of practice.

Air abrasion uses a fine stream of aluminum oxide to scour away decay. Think of it as a sandblaster geared to the scale of an ant: it’s extremely small and precise. When I use air abrasion, I usually don’t have to give you an anesthetic injection (no needle!), and you can eat or drink as soon as the filling is set, without worrying about whether your numb lip is hanging down to your chin.

Air abrasion is also much quieter than drilling and produces no vibration. The worst that can be said about it is that it produces a fine dust, which I mostly vacuum away as I work. Whatever isn’t vacuumed out, you simply rinse out with water. In the 12 years I’ve been using this technique, not a single patient has said he wished I'd used the drill.

What’s the catch? Air abrasion usually can only be done on cavities that are not already causing pain. I’m able to use air abrasion on more than half the cavities I treat. You can increase your chances of being treated with air-abrasion by having regular check-ups, so that we catch and treat cavities early.

If you have general questions about dentistry that you'd like to see addressed on this blog, feel free to email me at sdurante@earthlink.net . The information on this blog is presented for general education only: consult a dentist for advice on specific problems, diagnoses and treatment.