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Principles of Medical and Dental Lasers: An Introduction to Laser Medicine and Laser Dentistry
Principles of Medical and Dental Lasers: An Introduction to Laser Medicine and Laser Dentistry
Principles of Medical and Dental Lasers: An Introduction to Laser Medicine and Laser Dentistry
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Principles of Medical and Dental Lasers: An Introduction to Laser Medicine and Laser Dentistry

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This book is especially written for physicians and dentists who are new to the exciting field of lasers. It will give you a good reference for the physical and biophysical part of laser medicine and dentistry. It may also serve you well as a reference and study material in a fellowship or master's program. There are many books about lasers and laser physics, but these are written by physicists for physicists - and they generally do not address the specific knowledge a doctor needs to be aware of when it comes to laser-tissue-interaction. In this book, I want to cut to the chase. I will give you the background information you need when new to the field of laser medicine or laser dentistry: Your laser: what is that thing you just bought or are considering to use? How does absorption, scattering and transmission in biological tissues take place? On what parameters do the clinical effects depend? How can a laser be used as a minimally invasive tool in modern medicine?
LanguageEnglish
PublisherLulu.com
Release dateOct 16, 2011
ISBN9781470924270
Principles of Medical and Dental Lasers: An Introduction to Laser Medicine and Laser Dentistry

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    Book preview

    Principles of Medical and Dental Lasers - Rene Franzen

    Principles of Medical and Dental Lasers: An Introduction to Laser Medicine and Laser Dentistry

    Rene Franzen

    Copyright © 2011 Rene Franzen

    All rights reserved.

    ISBN: 978-1-4709-2427-0

    Disclaimer

    Since I am a physicist, I will not go into detail about all the clinical procedures in this book. This book is by no means a replacement for a laser safety course nor for a clinical education in the field of laser medicine or laser dentistry. The given medical and dental examples are generalized and build upon a solid theoretical framework. The individual situation and indicated dental or medical approach is strongly depending on the patient, her or his condition and in particular the absorption behavior of the affected and surrounding tissue. It is of highest importance to know the indications and contra-indications of the different procedures, conditions and wavelengths/operational modes of the laser system in question.

    The author of this book rejects any responsibility and claims originating in performing laser treatments. The author emphasizes the need to attended clinical courses first. This book is designed to be a reference for such courses and to provide background information. By no means this book is a replacement or substitute of a clinical training. It is not a substitute for clinical or medical education and is not suitable as a solitary basis to perform medical or dental procedures.

    About the author

    My name is Rene Franzen and I work as a PhD at RWTH Aachen University and AALZ Aachen Dental Laser Center and am active in research and education in the field of laser medicine.

    I graduated from Düsseldorf University in 2000 with physics as my major – my thesis was done at the Institute for Laser Medicine at the Medical Faculty of the university. This was quite unusual at the time – I needed a special permit of the Physics Department to work on my thesis in that field. Pure physics were quite boring for me and I wanted to do something where I could actually help people and so I applied my knowledge in medicine.

    A year later I moved to the city of Aachen and took up work with RWTH Aachen University and the Aachen Dental Laser Center (AALZ) and also got involved with the German Society for Laser Dentistry (DGL). This was – and still is – a time of great joy, great challenges and projects to bring an exciting technology forward to the benefit of patients as well as doctors.

    In 2004 we at the Aachen Dental Laser Center established the first post-graduate Master of Science program in Laser Dentistry and got it accredited as the first study program at RWTH Aachen University. I established and introduced an e-learning system and took over to be responsible of the physics and dosimetry part of the program.

    The most important thing I learned over the years was to not get lost in small details and keep the big picture in view – and most importantly, to teach complicated subjects in a way to enable my students to quickly access the core concepts and achieve useable knowledge to transfer into their daily work.

    At the time of writing I am a researcher, an educator, an inventor (2 patents regarding the creating of laser light) and an author and co-author of more than 60 publications in international and national journals in this field.

    You can find my personal blog on the internet where you will find my thoughts and also links to the RWTH Aachen University, the German Society for Laser Dentistry and also the AALZ Aachen Dental Laser Center which offers basic and advanced clinical courses in this field.

    About this book

    Since 2002, I teach laser safety courses and lecture about laser technique, dosimetry and biophysical interactions of laser beams with tissues. Over the years and especially while teaching dentists in the M.Sc. program „Lasers in Dentistry" at RWTH Aachen University I realized there are not many books available which really get to the key concepts without going too far into the mathematical side of things. Either existing books are written directly for dentists and focus on clinics, presenting biophysical key concepts too briefly, or they are written by physicists and fail awfully at explaining why lasers are useful tools in medicine and dentistry.

    I have been asked countless times to recommend a good but still understandable book about lasers for an audience not having the background of several semesters in mathematics and physics.

    Still countless times I have been asked, why I don't write a book myself.

    So I did! You are now holding it in your hand. I wrote this book especially for physicians and dentists who

    • are new to this exciting field.

    • are looking for an introduction to the topic and want a book which is not too thick and easy to understand.

    • are just starting their first treatments with a laser.

    • just bought a medical or dental laser.

    • want to have a good reference for the physical and biophysical part of laser medicine.

    • want to have a reference as study material in a fellowship or master's program which covers the key principles.

    This book was written for you.

    Rene Franzen, June 2011

    „If you can‘t explain it simply, you don‘t understand it well enough."

    Albert Einstein.

    Introduction and who should read this book

    What I will cover in this book is basically an introduction to the field of laser medicine and laser dentistry. Since I teach in these fields for many years now, I realized that there not that many introductory books which do a good job at introducing a physician or dentist who is just starting to use a medical or dental laser system. There are some good books explaining clinical procedures, stating laser settings, but without giving sufficient information, what they actually mean. It is not a good thing if a doctor is becoming a mere button pusher.

    Then we have the books about lasers and laser physics, but these are written by physicists for physicists and are mostly thick enough to club a baby seal with - and even they don’t go into the specifics what a doctor really needs to be aware of when it comes to laser-tissue-interaction, and they of course require a knowledge of 4 − 6 semesters of undergraduate physics and mathematics.

    In this book, I want to cut to the chase. I will give you the background information you should have:

    • laser physics - what is that thing you just bought or are considering to use?

    • what is inside that laser machine? What is an active medium, a resonator? How does it work?

    • what makes an Nd:YAG laser an Nd:YAG laser? What does that cryptic term even mean?

    and the information you absolutely need to know what is happening on and inside the tissue you are treating:

    • what are the special

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