13th World Congress for Laser Dentistry

26-28, April 2012

Barcelona, Spain

Meeting Abstract

Sponsors: World Federation for Laser Dentistry

- Oral Presentation 43

TITLE: Low-level laser therapy in bone repair: a literature review.

AUTHORS: Pavlic V, Aoki A, Vujic-Aleksic V, Izumi Y.

Department of Periodontology and Oral Medicine, Medical Faculty University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

SOURCE: Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2012 May 1;17(Supplement1):S43.

* doi:10.4317/medoral.17643542

http://dx.doi.org/10.4317/medoral.17643542

Abstract

Nowadays, among other treatment modalities, low-le-vel laser therapy (LLLT) is expected to be increasingly used as a new approach in treatment of bone loss, applicable in area of medicine and dentistry. LLLT is producing a specific, non-thermal, bio-stimulative photochemical effect at the cellular level inducing subsequent bone tissue and cell reactions (photo-bio-modulation). The aim of this study is to present systematically reviewed literature of the photo-bio-modulatory effects in the bone tissue repair process.

A review was carried out of the literature in the PubMed database using the following key words: "low-level laser therapy", "bone tissue repair", "calcification", "mi-neralization" and "osteoblasts".

In all published articles, that were considered pertinent for this overwiev, LLLT could promote bone tissue healing via enhanced cell proliferation, differentiation, calcification and mineralization. Furthermore, LLLT increased speed of fracture healing and in callus formation, increased local microcirculation and decreased inflammation and pain.

Even though many questions regarding mechanisms of LLLT on bone cells remain unanswered, mainly due to lack of available studies, the majority of reviewed articles reported that LLLT causes enhancement of bone tissue repair, especially when used in optimal energy density. Further in vitro, in vivo and well-designed clinical studies, using different irradiation parameters are proposed to determine the best parameters to be used.