Trading the Blade for a Beam: What Laser Gum Contouring Is Actually Like

Written and clinically reviewed by Dr. Young Kyu Kim, DMD · Smile Maker of Texas, 6201 Dallas Pkwy, Suite 220, Plano, TX 75024 · Serving Plano, Dallas, Frisco, Richardson and the wider DFW metroplex.

Ask a patient what frightens them about gum surgery and almost nobody says the gums. They say the scalpel, the stitches, and the injection that has to come first.

I spent eighteen years at a dental laboratory bench before I ever treated a patient, so I came to surgery from an unusual direction: I already knew, in fine detail, what the finished restoration needed the tissue to look like. Gum position is not a footnote to that work. It is the frame the whole thing sits in.

So the development worth writing about is not that we can reshape gums — we always could. It is that the instrument changed.

What the BIOLASE Epic X is

The BIOLASE Epic X is a 940-nanometer diode laser used in dentistry for soft-tissue procedures, in-office teeth whitening, and temporary relief of jaw and muscle pain. That wavelength is the whole trick: it is absorbed by pigment and water — the things soft tissue is made of — while passing harmlessly by tooth enamel.

In practice the beam does its work exactly where it is aimed and nowhere else. It reshapes tissue at a scale and in positions a blade cannot comfortably reach, without the collateral risk of a sharp edge traveling near porcelain or natural enamel.

It seals as it works

Here is the part that surprises people. Light does something a blade fundamentally cannot: small blood vessels close behind the beam as it passes.

The consequences run right through the appointment. Most procedures involve little or no bleeding. Sutures are rarely needed. And the working field stays clean, which means I can actually see what I am doing. For implant and cosmetic work alike, seeing clearly is most of the job.

The needle question

This is the one patients actually care about, so let me be direct about it.

The system has a setting called ComfortPulse™, which delivers energy in very short pulses with rest time in between. That pulsing limits how much heat builds up in the tissue, and heat is a large part of what makes laser work uncomfortable. Because of it, many minor soft-tissue procedures here are done with topical anesthetic only — no injection at all.

How I use it: the surgical side

My side of the practice is implants and reconstruction, and the laser earns its place there for four jobs in particular:

• Uncovering healed implants. Once an implant has integrated, the tissue above it has to be opened to attach the restoration. A laser does this cleanly, with a clear field and typically no sutures.
• Releasing tight frenum attachments. A frenectomy with light rather than a blade is quick, and for younger patients in particular it is a far less alarming appointment.
• Decontaminating tissue. Around implants and within periodontal pockets, where the aim is to treat the tissue rather than remove it.
• Shaping emergence. Contouring the tissue that frames a crown or implant restoration so the finished tooth emerges from the gum the way a natural tooth does.

That last one is where my laboratory background keeps showing up. When you have spent years building the restoration, you develop strong opinions about the tissue it has to sit in.

Same device, two disciplines, one treatment plan. Patients having implant work and cosmetic work in the same mouth benefit from that overlap more than they realize — the surgery is planned around the restoration rather than the other way round.

Why we brought it to Plano

The Epic X did not arrive on its own. It came in alongside our R2 Studio Q imaging system as part of the practice’s Implant Treatment Center, and the two are designed to work as a pair: the R2 Studio Q shows us precisely where everything sits in three dimensions, and the laser lets us act on that information with a matching degree of precision.

Planning in 3D and then executing with a scalpel is a bit like drafting on a computer and cutting with scissors. The point of pairing them is that the accuracy survives all the way to the tissue.

Dr. Young Kyu Kim, DMD

Restorative, cosmetic and implant dentist at Smile Maker of Texas in Plano. DMD, University of Kentucky; Hiossen Master Course in implant surgery; trained in dental ceramics at the Osaka Dental Ceramic School in Japan, with 18+ years at the bench in laboratories in New York City and Weston, Massachusetts. Fluent in English, Korean and Japanese.

This article is for general information and is not a substitute for an in-person examination or individual dental advice. Laser treatment is not appropriate for every case or every patient, and comfort, healing and results vary between individuals. Suitability can only be determined at a clinical consultation.