[Low level laser therapy in inflammatory and infectious oral diseases]

Purpose: Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is an increasingly studied technique. The authors of a meta-analysis published in 2012 had already confirmed the effectiveness of LLLT for radio-induced mucitis. Our purpose was to check its indication for similar pathologies.

Material and methods: The articles were selected with the PubMed engine. The selected terms were "Low Level Laser Therapy", "oral surgery", "oral infection", "oral inflammation", "oral mucosal lesions", "oral mucosal disease", "stomatitis", "aphtous", "Herpes", "oral lichen planus", and "oral ulceration". The analysis was made on the following criteria: assessment criteria, methodological quality, and bias. We estimated the level of proof according to Sackett's modified score.

Results: Six articles were selected. Two focused on the effectiveness of LLLT for Herpes simplex virus 1 oral symptoms. Two focused on the effectiveness of LLLT for oral lichen planus. One focused on the effectiveness of LLLT for recurrent aphthous stomatitis. The last one focused on the usefulness of LLLT to control stomatitis pain in the hand-foot-and-mouth disease.

Conclusion: All the selected studies were assessed with a Sackett's score of IV. No study presented the required quality standards to recommend the treatment of LLLT for the selected indications.