Comparison of Patient Perceptions with Diode Laser and Scalpel Technique for Frenectomy

Abstract

Background: Frenum that encroaches on the margin of the gingiva may interfere with plaque removal and can lead to gingival recession and midline diastema. Thus in order to facilitate maintenance of proper oral hygiene and prevention of gingival recession, frenectomy is done.
 Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of the diode laser and the scalpel technique on the degree of postoperative pain experienced by patients after frenectomy.
 Materials and Methods: Twenty patients requiring frenectomy were randomly assigned to two treatment groups, one with a diode laser and the other with a scalpel. The postoperative pain of each patient was assessed using a Visual Analog Scale and the number of analgesic used was recorded on postoperative days one and seven.
 Results: Patients treated with the diode laser had significantly less postoperative pain at day one and used less number of analgesic (2.30 ±0.94) as compared to scalpel surgery (4.40 ±1.07).
 Conclusion: This comparative study indicates that diode laser treatment for frenectomy provides better patient perception in terms of pain compared to scalpel technique.

Perioperative outcomes of frenectomy using laserversusconventional surgery: a systematic review

“…Significantly less patients required analgesics after laser therapy in two studies [15,18]. Another study showed that patients required significantly less analgesics after laser surgery [20,22]. Uraz et al observed similar results but did not mention if this decrease was statistically significant [19].…”

“…Amongst these articles, six were included [14][15][16][17][18][19]. After a manual screening of the references of the articles included, four other articles were added [20][21][22][23]. Finally, ten articles met the eligibility criteria and they were included in this systematic review.…”

“…The selection process is detailed in Figure 2. Among these ten studies, five were performed in Turkey [14][15][16]18,19], two in India [22,23], one in Brazil [17], one in Nepal [20] and one in Macedonia [21]. They all have been published since 2006.…”

“…Newcastle Postoperative pain was assessed by all authors. The laser seemed to cause significantly less postoperative pain on the surgery day [14][15][16], one day [14][15][16]18,20,22,23], three days [16,21,23] and one week [15,18,22,23]. On the contrary, two studies failed to show a difference of post-operative pain between the two groups [17,19].…”