WASHINGTON, D.C. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Until now, dental bone surgery has meant using a scalpel and stitches to fix problems in your mouth; but now there's a new tool that makes the surgery much less scary and it's all about replacing those sharp objects with sound waves.

A drill, scalpel and a needle … three reasons Nancy Lemos, was dreading dental surgery. Periodontal disease caused bone and gum tissue to separate from her tooth.

"When I think of surgery, it's like anything else … I think of cutting," Lemos told Ivanhoe. "I think of bleeding." But none of those would be part of Lemos's surgery because her cosmetic dentist used a new procedure called Piezosurgery. "It was just so quick, it didn't seem possible," she said.

The new device uses sound waves to cut through bone -- 60,000 cycles per second. The high frequency vibrations work so fast, there's no bleeding or pain.


"Just as an opera singer will sing and crack glass, this is like the opera singer for surgery and it can crack your bone without any pain, without any discomfort, without any bleeding," Joseph Kravitz, D.D.S, a prosthodontist at the Center for Dental Health in Washington, D.C., explained to Ivanhoe.

Using an egg, Dr. Kravtiz showed the Piezosurgery's accuracy by removing the shell. "It's not hard boiled either," he pointed out.

The sound waves are programmed to cut bone, without hurting soft tissue, nerves or vessels.


"This technology makes total logical sense and there's nothing that even comes close to it," Dr. Kravitz said.

Lemos is an accomplished Ph.D., but is still amazed her procedure only took five minutes. "Why put yourself through anything else?" she said. "This is easy."

She went home pain free and considers her trip to the dentist's office a success.

Usually patients who suffer from gum diseases or have cavities that have crept into the bone need this kind of dental bone surgery.

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