Dr. Arany is trained as a dentist and an oral pathologist. He completed a joint PhD- Residency program at Harvard University as a Harvard Presidential Scholar. He has two certificates in clinical translational research from Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Health. He pursued postdoctoral fellowships at the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences & Wyss Institute, Cambridge. Following his training, he served as an Assistant Clinical Investigator at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, from 2012 to 2015. In 2015, he joined Oral Biology, School of Dental Medicine, University at Buffalo, New York and is currently an Associate Professor with tenure. He also has several adjunct positions in various institutes, including the National Institute of Aging, N.I.H.; Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, University at Buffalo; School of Nursing, Shepherds University; Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy, Manipal University.

The purpose of this introductory lecture is to provide a current overview of laser applications in clinical dentistry based on photobiological interactions. The use of light-based technologies is fundamentally changing our dental practices from improved illumination, curing lights, optical (digital) imaging, additive and subtractive 3D printing, surgical soft and hard tissue applications, and non-surgical therapies such as anti-microbial photodynamic therapy and photobiomodulation therapy. Both current status and future exciting research advances in many of these areas will be briefly discussed, with an emphasis on the clinical developments.

At the conclusion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Understand various dental clinical applications of laser technologies
  
• Have a basic understanding of surgical and non-surgical laser approaches
• Appreciate the progress in various clinical research applications with lasers