ORAL HEALTH EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE PROGRAM
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Title Low-Level Laser Therapy is effective in the palliative management of recurrent aphthous stomatitis
Clinical Question In patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis, is low-level laser therapy an effective palliative treatment?
Clinical Bottom Line In patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS), low-level laser therapy effectively reduces pain and accelerates healing time.
Best Evidence (you may view more info by clicking on the PubMed ID link)
PubMed ID Author / Year Patient Group Study type
(level of evidence)
#1) 28345122Suter/ 201711 subjectsRandomized Controlled Trial
Key resultsIn this review, eleven studies ( ten RCT and one non-randomised controlled trial ) were selected. Study participants were in the age range of 7-9 for laser group and 5-90 for the control ones. Study design and exclusion were performed by two reviewers. The control group had placebo, no therapy or topical steroid treatments. The review assessed the effect of lasers on immediate and late pain relief, wound healing and reduction in episode frequency. Five out of six studies showed immediate pain relief, seven out of nine showed improved late pain and five out of nine studies demonstrated faster wound healing. The episode frequency was only evaluated in one study which it did not differentiate between the study and control groups.
Evidence Search low[All Fields] AND level[All Fields] AND ("lasers"[MeSH Terms] OR "lasers"[All Fields] OR "laser"[All Fields]) AND Recurrent[All Fields] AND ("stomatitis, aphthous"[MeSH Terms] OR ("stomatitis"[All Fields] AND "aphthous"[All Fields]) OR "aphthous stomatitis"[All Fields] OR ("aphthous"[All Fields] AND "stomatitis"[All Fields]))
Comments on
The Evidence
In this systematic review, Jadad scores were not higher than 3 for included studies, a score range of 0-2 was given to studies evaluating pain relief and 0-3 was given for studies evaluating wound healing. The reviewers demonstrated high variations of laser types, settings and absence of one standard laser application for treatment of RAS. The population ranged from 7-90 for the laser group and 5-90 for control which showed significant variation in the number of participants.
Applicability Using low level laser therapy as a conservative and effective approach decreases the discomfort of RAS, improves wound healing and quality of life. LLLT can be considered as a treatment of choice in individuals with severe RAS due to its low frequency and absence of side effects. Further studies are required to determine the superiority of lasers to topical pharmaceutical treatments.
Specialty/Discipline (Oral Medicine/Pathology/Radiology) (General Dentistry) (Periodontics)
Keywords Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis, RAS, Low Level Laser Therapy, LLLT
ID# 3287
Date of submission: 11/10/2017spacer
E-mail rahimii@livemail.uthscsa.edu
Author Iman Rahimi
Co-author(s)
Co-author(s) e-mail
Faculty mentor/Co-author Adriana V. Green, DDS, MPH
Faculty mentor/Co-author e-mail greenav@uthscsa.edu
Basic Science Rationale
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None available
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