Patients will be assessed and selected at the University Odontostomatology Clinic (COU) in Perugia; patients are considered eligible for enrolment if they are at least 18 years old and have a carious lesion on permanent teeth, cavitated and non-destructive, deepening to the middle third of the dentine and no further. The patients will be randomly assigned to two groups as follows: group A, control group, which includes treatment with traditional therapy; group B, intervention group, which includes treatment with Er:YAG laser therapy. For each patient, two salivary swabs will be taken on the cavity dentine of the carious lesion: one before and one after the treatments.
The aim of this study is to verify the quantitative and qualitative effect of Erbium dental laser therapy on microbial populations in carious lesions and to compare the laser therapy with traditional conservative therapies.