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World J Stomatol. Nov 20, 2015; 4(4): 129-136
Published online Nov 20, 2015. doi: 10.5321/wjs.v4.i4.129
Laser assisted periodontics: A review of the literature
Youssef Bouhout, Reginaldo Bruno Gonçalves
Youssef Bouhout, Reginaldo Bruno Gonçalves, Département de Parodontie et Groupe de Recherche en Écologie Buccale, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université Laval, Quebéc G1V 0A6, Canada
Author contributions: The article was written in collaboration by both authors.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interests. The authors are responsible for the content and writing of this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Reginaldo Bruno Gonçalves, DDS, MSD, PhD, Dip, ABP, FRCD(C), Département de Parodontie et Groupe de Recherche en Écologie Buccale, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université Laval, 2325 Rue de l’Université, Quebéc G1V 0A6, Canada. reginaldo.goncalves@fmd.ulaval.ca
Telephone: +1-418-6562131
Received: March 1, 2015
Peer-review started: March 2, 2015
First decision: June 4, 2015
Revised: September 14, 2015
Accepted: October 12, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: November 20, 2015
Processing time: 263 Days and 14.2 Hours
Abstract

Over the years, the use of the laser within health field and more particularly dentistry has been increasing and improving. The application of laser in the periodontal treatment takes part of a non-surgical and surgical approaches, is used for the decontamination of periodontal pockets due to its bactericidal effect, and the removal of granulation tissues, inflamed and diseased epithelium lining, bacterial deposits and subgingival calculus. However in spite of all the marketing surrounding, the use of laser highlighting its beneficial effect, the capacity of laser to replace the conventional treatment for chronic periodontitis is still debatable. In fact there is no evidence that any laser system adds substantial clinical value above conventional treatments of chronic periodontitis. Some studies showed a significant positive effect on clinical attachment level gain and probing depth reduction. In the other hand, several articles demonstrated no evidence of the superior effectiveness of laser therapy compared to root planing and scaling. Our aims is to review the literature on the capacity of erbium:Yttrium-aluminum-garnet and neodymium:Yttrium-aluminium-garnet laser to either replace or complete conventional mechanical/surgical periodontal treatments.

Keywords: Laser; Review; Scaling and root planning; Erbium:Yttrium-aluminum-garnet; Neodymium:Yttrium-aluminium-garnet; Periodontitis

Core tip: Faced with the increased use of lasers in dentistry, we tried to demystify, in this review, the real benefits and disadvantages of the use of the neodymium:Yttrium-aluminium-garnet and erbium:Yttrium-aluminum-garnet lasers in periodontics. Many trials showed that the use of lasers is an effective and safe method of root planing in periodontal non-surgical treatment of chronic periodontitis. However, due its possible side effects and less effective results when used alone, lead some authors to state that the use of lasers as a replacement of the conventional mechanical treatment is still doubtful.