Clinical parameters in soft tissue adjunctive periodontal procedures for orthodontic patients: surgical laser vs scalpel

Abstract

Objectives: To systematically review existing literature regarding clinical parameters comparing surgical laser and conventional surgery with scalpel for soft tissue adjunctive periodontal procedures in orthodontic patients.

Methods and materials: MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, LILACS, Bibliografia Brasileira de Odontologia (Brazilian Dental Literature - BBO), Embase, Open Grey, Portal de Periódicos da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - CAPES), and Google Scholar were searched up to December 2020 without language restriction. Clinical trials comparing clinical parameters from surgical laser and conventional surgery with scalpel for soft tissue adjunctive periodontal procedures in orthodontic patients were selected. Risk of bias (RoB) assessments were performed using the Cochrane RoB2 tool. Narrative syntheses were performed, and the certainty of evidence was determined using the GRADE tool.

Results: Five randomized clinical trials were included. One study was rated as low RoB, whereas others presented some concerns or high RoB. The studies were highly heterogeneous in relation to the procedure performed, laser protocol, outcomes evaluated, and follow-up periods. In general, regardless of the procedure and laser protocol used, the studies did not show significant differences between laser and scalpel for the outcomes of probing pocket depth, clinical crown length, gingival index, and relapse rate. Pain and bleeding were significantly lower with the use of laser compared with the scalpel. The certainty of evidence ranged from moderate to very low.

Conclusions: The existing literature on the subject is scarce and very heterogeneous and has methodological limitations. Based on the available evidence, it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions about the beneficial effect of laser use in orthodontic patients.

Keywords: Laser therapy; Lasers; Oral surgery; Oral surgical procedures; Orthodontics; Systematic review.