Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Additional Information (Detail)

v2.4.1.9
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2013
Segment
Dec. 31, 2012
Accounting Policies [Line Items]      
Depreciation expense $ 627,000us-gaap_Depreciation $ 484,000us-gaap_Depreciation $ 377,000us-gaap_Depreciation
Number of operating segments   1us-gaap_NumberOfOperatingSegments  
Undelivered elements (training, installation, product and support services) 952,000biol_UndeliveredElementsTrainingInstallationAndProductAndSupportServices 1,823,000biol_UndeliveredElementsTrainingInstallationAndProductAndSupportServices  
Provision for sales returns 110,000us-gaap_SalesReturnsAndAllowancesGoods 110,000us-gaap_SalesReturnsAndAllowancesGoods  
Extended warranty contracts 1,500,000us-gaap_ExtendedProductWarrantyAccrual 1,642,000us-gaap_ExtendedProductWarrantyAccrual  
Revenue recognition, percentage of fair value of trade-in exchange   25.00%biol_PercentageOfFairValueOfExchangeToRecognizeRevenue  
Advertising costs 543,000us-gaap_AdvertisingExpense 1,500,000us-gaap_AdvertisingExpense 907,000us-gaap_AdvertisingExpense
Compensation cost related to stock options 1,233,000us-gaap_AllocatedShareBasedCompensationExpense 1,609,000us-gaap_AllocatedShareBasedCompensationExpense 1,600,000us-gaap_AllocatedShareBasedCompensationExpense
Net impact of share based compensation expense to earnings per diluted share $ (0.03)biol_ShareBasedCompensationNetImpactOnEarningPerShareDiluted $ (0.05)biol_ShareBasedCompensationNetImpactOnEarningPerShareDiluted $ (0.05)biol_ShareBasedCompensationNetImpactOnEarningPerShareDiluted
Total unrecognized compensation cost $ 1,400,000us-gaap_EmployeeServiceShareBasedCompensationNonvestedAwardsTotalCompensationCostNotYetRecognized $ 2,700,000us-gaap_EmployeeServiceShareBasedCompensationNonvestedAwardsTotalCompensationCostNotYetRecognized  
Unrecognized share based compensation cost to be recognized over weighted-average period 10 months 24 days    
Outstanding stock options and warrants excluded from diluted loss per share 10,094,000us-gaap_AntidilutiveSecuritiesExcludedFromComputationOfEarningsPerShareAmount 6,039,000us-gaap_AntidilutiveSecuritiesExcludedFromComputationOfEarningsPerShareAmount 4,713,000us-gaap_AntidilutiveSecuritiesExcludedFromComputationOfEarningsPerShareAmount
UNITED STATES | WaterLase systems      
Accounting Policies [Line Items]      
Product warrant period 2 years 1 year 1 year
UNITED STATES | Diode systems      
Accounting Policies [Line Items]      
Product warrant period 2 years 2 years 2 years
International | WaterLase systems      
Accounting Policies [Line Items]      
Product warrant period 28 months 16 months 16 months
International | Diode systems      
Accounting Policies [Line Items]      
Product warrant period 28 months 28 months 28 months