Hi Bruce and a hearty welcome to my fellow BCer!!

Congrats on the Delight, and what a great question. Hey first off are you using magnification and if so how much. I will be honest, many times now I use the smaller 400 micron tip for everything. I like the length of it compared to the 600 and also the cutting speed but I will say that at 10X mag (even 6.4X) I have greater control by being able to judge when it is to close to the tooth structure and to avoid accidental breakage by banging into the tooth or using it like a bur.

Remember its non contact in nature!!

It will definitely cut faster than a 600 but it will create more sensitivity at the same settings.

In general I would reduce the mj setting by 1/3.

My adjustments come on the MJ setting so with a case where I was using a 600 micron tip to create a bevel at 30 Hz and 60mj, I may drop to 30 Hz and 40 mj.

For enamel if I was at 25Hz and 240 mj , then I might go to 25Hz and 160 mj (drop it by 80 mj).

I will say that be careful not to drag the tip across enamel and to widen the cavosurface area to get water flow down to the depths of your prep, otherwise you can cut a narrow trough fast with this tip and not enough water will get to the site which leads to charring, pain, and eventually stalling out of the unit as it wont cut.

Hope that helps and if the patient is anesthetized then it is not a problem use them at full settings but be careful dragging the tips.

In addition, I think the best cases are small occlusals (diagnodent readings below 40) and what I do is use the 600 first just to create a little width to the prep and then go in with slightly reduced settings with the 400 micron tip to get into the deeper areas. This is where the tip shines.

I like this tip ALOT but remember that magnification is essential to the longevity of it !!

Glenn

Hi Bruce…….cheers from the mainland.

YOu are bang on with respect to the charring. You will get a beige or slightly darker brown on the dentin if you dont get enough water down into the ablation area, and then it will eventually get black. Take an extracted root and take an old tip and cut a straight channel down into the dentin. You will see what happens…..brown dentin.

I think it is very kind of you to make those remarks but I will tell you that in all honesty it really is just the scope that has given me the ability to make some judgements not based on what I feel, or what I think, but what I see is happening.

I can tell you that I tried alot of different techniques in the beginning and followed the threads here in the beginning. If you want some interesting reading, check out the early threads on this forum.

Its really weird to see how far we have come since the early days.

Hope all is well and again continued success with the 400 micron tip…….its my favorite tip.

With that in mind I use primarily 5 tips

80 degree 600 micron tip
80 degree 400 micron tip
Chisel tip
Soft tissue tip
Endo tip (usually 300 micron)

thats basically it…….and of these really only the chisel is the only one I use on the contra angle.

Hope that helps.

Glenn

Hi Danny…thanks. I have learned alot but I still have a long ways to go. I honestly dont say that a bur or cord or anything else is poorer than a laser.

I will tell you an interesting story on really why I post this stuff. I am at the Nash Institute and most people there (last weekend) had the laser for 1 year or less.

They were only doing hard tissue procedures (teeth preps) and none were using the laser for soft tissue, endo or bone.

If you have it and can do a little more with the laser while following biologic principles then great.

Now I will say that there is alot of the esthetic guys who are now using the laser for esthetic cases with alot of bone relief closed flap.

I actually done have that much of a problem for a localized area if you can see it, if the patient is not a periodontal nightmare, if you can feel the bone with the instrument etc.

I think that sometimes its difficult with a laser handpiece to get parallel to the tooth structure to relieve the bone properly and the pen type handpiece does help in this area.

Anyways, I am off to read your PM.

Glenn

Hi Danny: For the Hollywood suture (and I apologize if this is just very basic stuff) , do you start on the buccal in the papilla or 1-2 mm away. You go through the interproximal space to the palatal and then back through the space and tie out the knot on the buccal.

I was thinking that if you exit on the buccal at the end 1-2mm away from the initial entry level doesnt that pull your flap Upwards a little.

Thanks again for the dumb question , just trying to think how I can improve my next case.

Glenn