Treatment of cervical dentin hypersensitivity using neodymium: Yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser. Clinical evaluation

Background and Objective: The incidence of cervical dentinal hypersensitivity is related to the high number of non-carious cervical lesions. This clinical research was developed in order to evaluate the Nd:YAG laser treatment of cervical dentin hypersensitivity after attempting the removal and control of etiologic factor after two different stimuli. Study Design/Materials and Methods: Twenty patients participated in this study in a total of 145 teeth, where 104 received the Nd:YAG laser treatment and 41 remained as control. Results: The results showed that there was statistically significant reduction of hypersensitivity as for the groups that received the treatment with Nd:YAG laser, as for the control teeth. However, the reduction of cervical dentinal hypersensitivity was statistically greater when there was the association of the removal of etiologic factors with the application of Nd:YAG laser. Conclusions: We concluded that the laser irradiation was effective in the treatment of cervical dentin hypersensitivity after 6 months. (C) 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.