Solea CO2 dental laser wins Popular Science "Best of What's New" award
As the impact of Convergent Dental's Solea CO2 laser continues to expand in the dental market, the greater scientific community is taking notice. This week, Popular Sciencenamed Solea a “Best of What’s New” product for 2014.
The Solea CO2 laser is the first CO2 laser system cleared by the FDA for hard and soft tissue in dentistry. Convergent Dental Inc. is a privately held dental device and technology company led by CEO Michael Cataldo.
According to Convergent Dental, 95% of Solea users perform procedures on hard and soft tissue with no anesthesia. A similar percentage report soft tissue procedures are done with virtually no bleeding. Blood-free and anesthesia-free procedures represent a major leap forward in dentistry as practitioners are able to execute multi-quadrant dentistry, fillings on the fly, and soft tissue procedures in a single appointment. Patients can receive care in a fraction of the time and discomfort they were accustomed to from traditional drills.
“Winners of Popular Science’s Best of What’s New Award tend to change what the future will look like. This year’s 100 honorees are no different: they are all revolutionary in their respective fields,” said Popular Science Editor-in-Chief Cliff Ransom.
Like many companies, Convergent hopes their product will open up new patient bases for practitioners. Recent Gallup Well-Beingresearch found that more than one-third (35.3%) of Americans had not visited the dentist in the past 12 months. A major contributor to this oral health care epidemic is patients’ dread of the dentist. By providing pain-free or pain-reduced dentistry, Solea and similar advances could change the way people view going to the dentist.
Solea's unique 9.3 µm wavelength laser and innovative application of computer controls enable it to replace the drill as the primary tool for hard and soft tissue surgeries. The Solea laser is quiet and virtually sensationless.
“We are thrilled to be honored by Popular Science’s editors as one of the world’s most innovative products,” said Cataldo. “Convergent Dental’s CO2 dental laser Solea is changing what it means to go to the dentist by providing a technology that delivers fast, virtually painless, noiseless, anesthesia-free procedures that alleviate patients’ fears and encourage them to receive proper oral care to stay healthy and happy.”
Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year; breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in 12 categories: aerospace, automotive, engineering, entertainment, gadgets, green, hardware, health, home, recreation, security, and software.
Convergent Dental offers a list of Solea dentist on their “Find a Dentist” page: http://www.convergentdental.com/find-a-dentist/.
Further reading on Convergent Dental and Solea from the DentistryIQ network:
Convergent Dental Inc. secures $8 million in oversubscribed funding round
Convergent Dental receives FDA clearance for Solea
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