Dentistry – Apparatus – Having means to emit radiation or facilitate viewing of the...
Patent
1996-05-17
1998-06-09
Wilson, John J.
Dentistry
Apparatus
Having means to emit radiation or facilitate viewing of the...
606 16, A61C 100
Patent
active
057624933
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to hand-held units used to guide a laser light of medical apparatus, wherein, due to the heat developing at the operating point of the laser light beam, a flushing means is provided for directing a liquid onto or near the operating point of the laser light beam.
By hand-held units are meant handle pieces which permit an operator to manually guide the laser light in medical applications with a straight-lined or bent guidance of the light being possible. They also include, if need be, remote-controlled application heads for guiding the light of a laser light beam as used, for example, in urology.
Hand-held units for dental application are known, for example, from EP-0 375 578 A1, DE 3911 871 A1 or EP 0 073 617 A1.
A disadvantage with such hand-held units with spray flushing is that the flushing means may impair the effectiveness of the laser light beam in the operating point and that the cooling effect is insufficient.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a hand-held unit for guiding a light conductor as well as a process for flushing the operating point of a laser light beam emerging from a light conductor, by means of which an improved cooling of the operating point of the laser light beam is possible without impairing the effectiveness of the laser light.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention advantageously provides coupling the laser light beam into the liquid jet of the flushing means. Coupling the laser light beam into the liquid jet permits using the liquid jet as a light-conducting element extending the light conductor in such a manner that the laser light beam exactly follows the course of the liquid jet and the operating point of the laser light beam corresponds to the impingement point of the liquid jet. Thus, cooling is effected with high efficiency at precisely that spot where the heat develops, i.e., the operating point of the laser light beam.
A further advantage of the light-conducting liquid jet consists in that the removed substance is directly flushed away by the liquid jet. According to prior art, laser light beams not accompanied by a liquid or air jet always suffer from the problem that the crater formed in the worked substance after several laser pulses is full of removed material. The laser light beam is absorbed by the removed material and therefore being only partially effective to remove additional material. With the liquid jet and the integrated laser light beam according to the invention, the site worked by the laser light beam is continuously flushed due to the continuously supplied liquid.
The material removed by the laser light beam is also heated. The immediate transportation of the hot removed material from the operating region avoids additional undesired heating of the basic substance.
The laser light energy density remains constant over a longer liquid jet track section. Thus, it is possible to use the hand-held unit both in the contact mode and spaced from the operating point. In the contact mode, the nozzle outlet end is set directly upon the operating point. While the light conductor burns down in the contact mode when the light conductor is directly set down according to prior art, the light conductor cannot burn down because the laser light beam, according to the invention, is coupled into the liquid jet.
Preferably, the light conductor is arranged coaxially in a nozzle for the liquid jet. The nozzle bundles the liquid jet and coaxially encloses the light conductor, so that parallelism of the laser light beam and the liquid jet is ensured.
The end of the light conductor is arranged at a distance before the nozzle outlet end of the nozzle. Thus, it is ensured that the laser light beam can expand to the diameter of the liquid jet. This advantageously permits microsurgical operations upon teeth, even in the contact mode. The hand-held unit can be set directly upon the site to be worked. Also in these cases, a sufficient cooling of the site worked is ensured. The arrangement of the light conductor en
REFERENCES:
patent: 4503853 (1985-03-01), Ota et al.
patent: 5300067 (1994-04-01), Nakajima et al.
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