Bonding of orthodontic brackets since its inception into orthodontics has made tremendous advances and continuous efforts are on to find better bonding materials. The retentive strength of these brackets on the tooth surfaces has increased considerably with time, but bracket dislodgement still continues to haunt Orthodontists. The clinician rather than choosing to replace the dislodged bracket with new one has the option of re-using the same old bracket after subjecting it to a suitable method of refurbishing. To overcome the delays associated with commercial recycling, in-house methods have been developed. The in-house refurbishing methods employed in this study are the sandblasting method, thermal method, adhesive removal by tungsten carbide bur and by Er: YAG laser. Er: YAG laser technique has the high refurbished shear bond strength which is followed by the sandblasting method, thermal method and the tungsten carbide method which had the least shear bond strength value and is not fit for clinical usage. The brackets after refurbishing were investigated by ESEM (Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope) to find out the effectiveness of the refurbishing methods. ESEM indicates that the adhesive removal was found to be almost complete with this group when compared to other groups.

Fibromas are the most common benign connective tissue lesions of the oral cavity. Diode lasers have been successfully used for performing numerous soft-tissue dental procedures. Such procedures may range from being purely cosmetic like crown lengthening to surgical including biopsies. Diode lasers cut tissue by vaporizing the tissue rather than cutting, thus preserving the tumor cells and its margins for analysis. They decrease the chances of infection and bleeding as they seal all blood vessels and lymphatics during the procedure itself. The presented case demonstrates the use of a diode soft-tissue laser for biopsy of a soft tissue swelling on the buccal mucosa in a 35 yr old female patient. The histo-pathological examination confirmed the swelling to be an irritation fibroma.

Background and Objectives: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of Nd:YAG laser in destruction of Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia and to assess surface damage after ablation with laser in an in vitro tissue model. Materials and Methods: Subgingival plaque samples were collected from patients with Generalized Chronic Periodontitis with a sterile curette. P.gingivalis and P.intermedia were isolated and cultured on blood agar plate which was the test group, while blood agar plate without colonies was the control group. Ablation with Nd:YAG laser was done on both the plates and the results were observed under the Surgical Microscope under 24X magnification. Results: Distinct bottomless craters were seen after ablation of the test group with Nd:YAG laser due to lysis of the Colony forming units. No change was noted on the surface of the control group after ablation with Nd:YAG laser. Conclusion: Nd:YAG laser can selectively destroy pigmented perio-pathogenic bacteria leaving the surrounding tissue intact.