Abstract: Because of low operating speed and excessive collateral damage, lasers have not succeeded in replacing conventional tools in many surgical and dental applications. Recent developments now allow the new generation of amplified ultrashort pulse lasers to operate at high repetition rates and high single pulse energies. A Titanium:sapphire Chirped Pulse Regenerative Amplifier system operating at 1 KHz and 50 fs pulse duration, was used to demonstrate ultrashort pulse ablation of hard and soft tissue. Maximum ablation rates for enamel and dentin were approximately 0.650 $mu@m/pulse and 1.2 $mu@m/pulse respectively. Temperature measurements at both front and rear surface of a 1 mm dentin and enamel slices showed minimal increases. Scanning electron micrographs clearly show that little thermal damage is generate by the laser system. If an effective delivery system is developed, ultrashort pulse system may offer a viable alternative as a safe, low noise dental tool.!16
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