There is growing interest in the use of lasers in clinical practice, with a strong evidence base developed over the past four decades for a range of procedures where lasers offer advantages over conventional approaches.

Radiation Health legislation in some jurisdictions (including Queensland and Western Australia) requires that intending users of Class 4 lasers for dental hard and soft tissue procedures complete an accredited course in laser safety which includes a written examination. This distance course was designed to fulfil that requirement using a modular approach. The course has a particular emphasis on the selection of appropriate laser wavelengths for clinical procedures and on the safety aspects associated with laser use. Detailed information on laser safety is included.

This course has 13 hours of content and covers a broad range of laser applications in dentistry. This is the required course for laser cavity preparation, laser enhanced tooth whitening with the KTP laser and minor oral surgery. This course is suitable for new and intending users of all types of Class 4 (surgical, hard tissue, whitening) dental lasers currently available in the market (regardless of brand) including Er:YAG, Er,Cr:YSGG, KTP and carbon dioxide lasers, as well as diode lasers. It also includes information on Class 1, 2 and 3 lasers used in dentistry.

It has been fully accredited by Radiation Health Queensland. Upon successful completion of the written examination after this course, attendees will be issued with a certificate, a copy of which will be required when applying to Radiation Health Queensland for a Class 4 laser use license for dental purposes.

Delivered as a series of modules by electronic medium, this course includes digitized lectures and high resolution PDF handouts of the slides. A unique lossless image capture format has been used to provide optimal on-screen viewing quality for the movies, with an accompanying audio soundtrack. The video lectures are in high resolution format and run on either a Windows-based PC or Macintosh computer.

This course covers the following topics:

• Properties of laser energy and modes of laser operation
• Laser delivery systems
• Laser tissue interactions
• Laser surgical procedures and laser cavity preparation
• Photochemical laser effects including laser assisted tooth whitening
• Laser safety requirements for dental practice