Little evidence for the use of diode lasers as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal therapy.

DATA SOURCES

Medline, PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and Embase databases.

STUDY SELECTION

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) using thermal diode lasers as an adjunct to non-surgical conventional periodontal initial therapy conducted in patients ≥18 years old written in English or Dutch were considered.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

Study assessment data extraction and quality assessment was carried out independently by two reviewers. The main outcome variables were probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment loss (CAL), but plaque scores (PS), bleeding scores (BS) and the Gingival Index (GI) were also considered. Meta-analysis was carried out using a random effects model.

RESULTS

Nine studies involving 247 patients were included. Seven studies were of split mouth design and two were parallel group studies. The study designs showed considerable heterogeneity and follow up ranged from six weeks to six months. Meta-analysis found no significant effect on PPD, CAL and PS. There was however a significant effect for GI and BS favouring adjunctive use of the diode laser.

CONCLUSIONS

The collective evidence regarding adjunctive use of the diode laser with SRP indicates that the combined treatment provides an effect comparable to that of SRP alone. With respect to BS the results showed a small but significant effect favouring the diode laser, however, the clinical relevance of this difference remains uncertainStandard . This systematic review questions the adjunctive use of diode laser with traditional mechanical modalities of periodontal therapy in patients with periodontitis. The strength of the recommendation for the adjunctive use of the diode laser is considered to be 'moderate' for changes in PPD and CAL.