Laser Perio Treatment Calculator

Er:YAG lasers operate at a wavelength strongly absorbed by water in tissue, which makes them effective at lower power settings for soft-tissue effects and also capable of hard-tissue ablation at appropriate settings, whereas Nd:YAG's wavelength is more strongly absorbed by hemoglobin and pigmented tissue and is commonly used at somewhat higher power for comparable soft-tissue effects. This calculator's baseline power recommendations reflect that general difference in tissue interaction between the two laser types.

Expected PD reduction is calculated purely from Pocket depth and doesn't change based on Quadrants to treat -- more quadrants never implies a different depth-reduction outcome for any individual pocket. Quadrants to treat instead scales Total treatment time and Est. total cost: Total treatment time is Time per quadrant multiplied by the number of Quadrants to treat, so adding a second quadrant roughly doubles the total time compared to treating one quadrant alone, holding Pocket depth and Tissue biotype fixed. Time per quadrant itself is adjusted by pocket depth (deeper pockets take longer) and tissue biotype (thicker tissue takes proportionally longer than thin tissue).

Deeper periodontal pockets require more thorough debridement and bacterial reduction along a longer root surface, so this calculator recommends 3 passes per pocket for pockets deeper than 6mm versus 2 passes for shallower pockets, reflecting the additional exposure generally needed to adequately treat the increased pocket depth.

The evidence is weak or mixed. Laser therapy in this calculator is intended as an ADJUNCT to scaling and root planing (SRP) -- the actual standard-of-care baseline periodontal treatment, which this calculator does not itself model or replace. Current American Academy of Periodontology position statements and Cochrane systematic reviews generally find no clinically meaningful additional benefit from adding laser therapy on top of SRP alone for most patients. Treat Expected PD reduction as an optimistic planning estimate, not as proof that the laser step improves on SRP by itself.

No -- only Power setting scales with both Laser type and Tissue biotype. Pulse rate and Fiber diameter are determined by Laser type alone, since those two parameters are primarily set by the laser system's engineering rather than by the tissue being treated.