Alexandros A. Serafetinides

PICOSECOND LASER ABLATION OF DENTINE IN ENDODONTICS

Abstract. The interaction of picosecond laser radiation with human dental tissue was investigated in this study, in order to determine the ablation rates and the surface characteristics of the dentine by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Dentine ablation was performed by using tooth sections of different thicknesses (0.5–2.0 mm). Dental tissue samples were irradiated in air with the fundamental wavelength and first harmonic of a regenerative amplifier Nd:YAG laser system, at 1064 nm and 532 nm, respectively, with a pulse duration of 100 ps and a pulse repetition rate of 10 Hz. The results showed very clean craters surrounded by minimum melting of the surface of dentine when the 1064 nm pulses were used. In contrast, when the first harmonic 532 nm pulses were used, the SEM examinations revealed cracks and melting of dentine with irregular surface modification. Consequently, it seems that cleaning and shaping of the root canal walls during endodontic therapy with the picosecond Nd:YAG laser application may be possible in the future. The, as yet unexplored, field of the picosecond laser interaction with hard dental tissue is expected to be a potential alternative for powerful laser processing of biomedical structures.

Q-switched Versus Free-running Er:YAG Laser Efficacy on the Root Canal Walls of Human Teeth: A SEM Study

Twenty-one teeth with one root canal were prepared by the step-back technique, divided into three groups, and split longitudinally. Group A served as a control. In group B, 20 to 150 pulses of 100 micros, 30 to 70 mJ per pulse at 1 to 4 Hz from a free-running Er:YAG laser were applied to the root-canal dentin. In group C, the Q-switched Er:YAG laser, with the same energy parameters and a 190-ns pulse duration was used. Scanning electron microscopy examination revealed that control specimens had debris and smear layer obscuring the dentinal tubules at all levels in the canals without crack formation. Both groups of laser-treated dentin were clean with opened dentinal tubules except around the lased area in which there was an intact smear layer. Cracks were observed in both laser groups with higher frequency in group C. In group B, craters with different depth levels at the root canal walls were produced and the energy apparently was distributed equally, because craters were well-shaped. In contrast, the ablation efficiency in group C was questionable with the parameters used in this study. Consequently, suitable parameters of the free-running Er:YAG laser must be found before its careful use as an adjunct in endodontic therapy.

Four-wave mixing and parametric four-wave mixing near the 4P–4S transition of the potassium atom

Potassium 4S1/2–6S1/2 two-photon excitation initiates the emission of several internally generated photons. For the first time two emission lines, one close to and one below the potassium 4P3/2 level, are reported for low pumping intensity. Radiation emitted below the 4P3/2 level is due to a parametric four-wave mixing process that uses the photons emitted at the 5P3/2–4S1/2 transition and a two-step four-wave mixing process generates the line emitted close to the 4P3/2 level.

Red blood cell micromanipulation with elliptical laser beam profile optical tweezers in different osmolarity conditions

In this work optical tweezers with elliptical beam profiles have been developed in order to examine the effect of optical force on fresh red blood cells (RBC) in isotonic, hypertonic and hypotonic buffer solutions. Considering that the optical force depends essentially on the cell surface and the cytoplasmic refractive index, it is obvious that biochemical modifications associated with different states of the cell will influence its behaviour in the optical trap. Line optical tweezers were used to manipulate simultaneously more than one red blood cell. After we have been manipulated a RBC with an elliptical laser beam profile in an isotonic or hypertonic buffer, we noticed that it rotates by itself when gets trapped by optical tweezers and undergoes folding. Further shape deformations can be observed attributed to the competition between alignment and rotational torque which are transferred by laser light to the cell. In hypotonic buffer RBCs become spherical and do not rotate or fold since the resultant force due to rays emerging from diametrically opposite points of the cell leads to zero torque. Manipulation of fresh red blood cells in isotonic solution by line optical tweezers leads to folding and elongation of trapped RBCs. Membrane elasticity properties such as bending modulus can be estimated by measuring RBCs folding time in function with laser power.

A diffusion approximation model of light transport in multilayered skin tissue

In dermatology, biophotonic methods offer high sensitivity and non-invasive measurements of skin tissue optical properties, in various physiological and pathological conditions. There are numerous skin processes, which can be examined and characterized using diagnostic optical spectroscopy, as the monitoring of skin aging, diagnosis of benign and malignant cutaneous lesions, dosimetry in photodynamic therapy (PDT), etc. Several mathematical models have been used to calculate the tissue optical properties from experimental measurements and to predict the light propagation in soft tissues, like skin, based on transport theory or Monte Carlo modeling. This work analyses the phenomena which are observed experimentally during the irradiation of skin, such as the absorption, reflectance, scattering, fluorescence and transmission of laser light. The study was carried out on animal skin samples, extracted post-mortem. In this work we also tried to evaluate the utility of diffusion approximation modeling for measuring the light intensity distribution in the skin samples with cw visible laser beam (&lgr;=632.8 nm). The diffusion theory model was tested for the simulation results of the spatial light distribution within a five-layer model of animal skin tissue. We have studied the dependence towards the depth and the radial distance of the photon density of the incident radiation.

Biophotonics for imaging and cell manipulation: quo vadis?

As one of the major health problems for mankind is cancer, any development for the early detection and effective treatment of cancer is crucial to saving lives. Worldwide, the dream for the anti-cancer procedure of attack is the development of a safe and efficient early diagnosis technique, the so called “optical biopsy”. As early diagnosis of cancer is associated with improved prognosis, several laser based optical diagnostic methods were developed to enable earlier, non-invasive detection of human cancer, as Laser Induced Fluorescence spectroscopy (LIFs), Diffuse Reflectance spectroscopy (DRs), confocal microscopy, and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). Among them, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) imaging is considered to be a useful tool to differentiate healthy from malignant (e.g. basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma) skin tissue. If the demand is to perform imaging in sub-tissular or even sub-cellular level, optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy have enabled the visualization of molecular events underlying cellular processes in live cells, as well as the manipulation and characterization of microscale or even nanoscale biostructures. In this work, we will present the latest advances in the field of laser imaging and manipulation techniques, discussing some representative experimental data focusing on the 21th century biophotonics roadmap of novel diagnostic and therapeutical approaches. As an example of a recently discussed health and environmental problem, we studied both experimentally and theoretically the optical trapping forces exerted on yeast cells and modified with estrogen-like acting compounds yeast cells, suspended in various buffer media.

Biophotonics in diagnosis and modeling of tissue pathologies

Biophotonics techniques are applied to several fields in medicine and biology. The laser based techniques, such as the laser induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy and the optical coherence tomography (OCT), are of particular importance in dermatology, where the laser radiation could be directly applied to the tissue target (e.g. skin). In addition, OCT resolves architectural tissue properties that might be useful as tumour discrimination parameters for skin as well as for ocular non-invasive visualization. Skin and ocular tissues are complex multilayered and inhomogeneous organs with spatially varying optical properties. This fact complicates the quantitative analysis of the fluorescence and/or light scattering spectra, even from the same tissue sample. To overcome this problem, mathematical simulation is applied for the investigation of the human tissue optical properties, in the visible/infrared range of the spectrum, resulting in a better discrimination of several tissue pathologies. In this work, we present i) a general view on biophotonics applications in diagnosis of human diseases, ii) some specific results on laser spectroscopy techniques, as LIF measurements, applied in arterial and skin pathologies and iii) some experimental and theoretical results on ocular OCT measurements. Regarding the LIF spectroscopy, we examined the autofluorescence properties of several human skin samples, excised from humans undergoing biopsy examination. A nitrogen laser was used as an excitation source, emitting at 337 nm (ultraviolet excitation). Histopathology examination of the samples was also performed, after the laser spectroscopy measurements and the results from the spectroscopic and medical analysis were compared, to differentiate malignancies, e.g. basal cell carcinoma tissue (BCC), from normal skin tissue. Regarding the OCT technique, we correlated human data, obtained from patients undergoing OCT examination, with Monte Carlo simulated cornea and retina tissues for diagnosis of ocular diseases.

Mid-infrared laser ablation of intraocular acrylic lenses

Ablation rates measurements with free-running Er:YAG laser (λ=2.94 μm) were performed in hydrophilic acrylic intraocular lenses. We studied the role of water in the laser ablation mechanisms by using hydrophilic lenses with different concentrations of H20 and D20. A mathematical model simulated the experimental results.

Q-switched Er:YAG radiation transmission through medical sapphire fibers

The effect of the 2.94 μm Er:YAG laser radiation propagation through sapphire fibers with diameters varying from 250 μm to 550 μm, on the quality of the laser beam is investigated. A comparison was made between the fibers performance in free-running and Q-switched Er:YAG laser radiation.

Determination of the maximum capabilities of high-power oxide glass fibers in the mid-infrared region for medical applications

An intensive development effort is going on throughout the world, in order to develop reliable lasers emitting in the 3 μm wavelength range, as this wavelength is strongly absorbed by the water and the other components of soft and hard tissue and thus its use is important in various medical applications. In parallel, good flexible delivery systems, in the mid-IR wavelength region, are needed in order to deliver the laser beam to the tissue. In this work High Power (HP) Oxide Glass fibers are tested for determining their maximum capabilities in delivering free-running and Q-switched Er:YAG laser radiation at 2.94 μm. Oxide glass is a new material in solid core fiber fabrication for medical applications, and its performance at the wavelength of 2.94 μm, for various laser characteristics is of great importance. Also a comparison is made between results obtained with the two different Er:YAG lasers, afree-running and a Q-switched one, and the results obtained at 2.78 μm, with a chemical HF laser.