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Sponsorships or competing interests that may be relevant to content are dis-closed at the end of this article. Background and Objective. A precise means to cut bone with-out significant thermal or mechanical injury has thus far remained elusive. A novel non-ionizing ultrafast pulsed pico-second infrared laser (PIRL) may provide the solution. Tissue ablation with the PIRL occurs via a photothermal process with thermal and stress confinement, resulting in efficient material ejection greatly enhanced through front surface spallation photomechanical effects. By comparison, the Er:YAG laser (EYL) ablates via photothermal and cavitation-induced photomechanical effects without thermal or acoustic confinement, leading to significant collateral tissue injury. This study compared PIRL and EYL bone abla