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Sonali Sarkar*,Kailasam S,Vidyaa Hari Iyer
Background: Soft tissue lasers and certain hard tissue laser have been used in the treatment of oral mucosal lesions. This study was an attempt to compare soft tissue laser and hard tissue laser in treating oral leukoplakia.
Aim and Objective: To compare the effectiveness of Diode Laser and Er,Cr: YSGG Laser in treating oral leukoplakia by assessing intraoperative pain and bleeding and postoperative pain on the following seven postoperative days as well as wound healing on the 7th, 14th and 21st post-operative days. The one year assessment of recurrence of the lesion was also analysed.
Methodology: The study population included five patients, above the age of 18 years, provisionally diagnosed and histopathologically confirmed as having oral leukoplakia. In each patient part of the lesion was treated with Diode laser and the rest with Er,Cr:YSGG laser. Each patient was assessed individually during both laser procedures for intraoperative pain and bleeding during procedure, for postoperative pain on the following seven post-operative days and for wound healing on the 7th, 14th and 21st day after treatment. Pain was assessed using three different pain rating scales and wound healing using visual method. Recurrence by clinical and histopathological analysis after one year.
Results: Using Diode laser caused minimal to no pain, excellent hemostasis and good wound healing with no postoperative complications and Er,Cr:YSGG laser caused minimal discomfort to patient, profuse bleeding during procedure and good healing outcome in treatment of oral leukoplakia. No recurrence was observed after one year.
Conclusion: While comparing both the lasers, in this present study it has been concluded that Diode laser (940 nm) is superior to that of Er,Cr:YSGG laser (2780 nm) in treating oral leukoplakia. Er, Cr:YSGG laser can also be considered for treating oral leukoplakia.