Diode laser in the management of leukoplakia - A retrospective study

Abstract

Introduction: Leukoplakia is among the most common potentially malignant disorders encountered in clinical dental practice. The treatment of leukoplakia includes nonsurgical and surgical management. The surgical treatment includes excision, electrocauterisation, laser surgery or cryosurgery. This retrospective study aimed to analyse the efficacy of diode lasers in the management of leukoplakia. Methods: The sample consists of 56 cases with 77 leukoplakia sites treated with diode laser between January 2018 and December 2020 with a minimum of six months follow-up. For each patient, personal data was collected along with site of lesions, leukoplakia phase, type of treatment performed (laser ablation or laser excision), side effects, recurrences and malignant transformation. Inferential statistical analysis was then conducted. Results: After applying exclusion criteria, 56 cases with 77 leukoplakia sites were included in this study. Males aged >45 years were predominantly affected. Homogeneous leukoplakia (48.1%) was the most common phase. Recurrences were noted in 19.48% of the cases. Compared to laser excision, laser ablation had more recurrences. Gingival lesions showed a higher recurrence rate than other sites in the oral cavity. None of the cases showed malignant transformation. Discussion: Laser offers many advantages over other conventional methods including lesser postoperative pain and swelling, bloodless dry operating field and increased patient comfort and requires minimal local anaesthesia. The study concluded that diode laser is an effective surgical treatment modality for treating leukoplakia. Furthermore, the laser excision technique was found to be superior to laser ablation due to lesser recurrence.

Cemento-ossifying fibroma transforming to osteosarcoma

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Effectiveness of Diode Laser in Intraoral Soft Tissue Surgeries - An Evaluative Study

“…[ 5 ] The advantages of laser are precise and rapid tissue dissection, a bloodless field due to sealing of blood vessels, so it reduces the surgical site morbidity and lessens the post-operative inflammatory sequelae such as pain, swelling and post-operative infection; hence, it offers excellent patient acceptance. [ 6 7 8 9 ] Lasers are being widely used for intraoral soft-tissue procedures, including gingivectomy, frenectomy, gingivoplasty, gingival depigmentation, epulis, benign tumour removal, second-stage implant exposure, irradiation of aphthous ulcer, coagulation of free gingival graft of donor sites and soft-tissue crown lengthening. [ 5 10 11 12 13 14 ]…”