Investigation of possibilities of plasma treatment for dental caries

Much effort is invested in development of tissue-saving methods in dentistry. Cleaning and sterilization of infected tissue in a dental cavity or in a root channel can be accomplished using laser techniques, but in addition to being too expensive, lasers cannot perform superficial treatment of an irregular surface. Recently, a non-thermal atmospheric plasma has been developed and its interactions with living objects have been studied [E. Stoffels, 2002]. Plasma is an efficient source of various radicals, capable of bacterial decontamination, while it operates at room temperature and does not cause bulk destruction of the tissue. Plasma treatment is potentially a novel tissue-saving technique, allowing to clean irregular structures and narrow channels within the diseased tooth.