A comparative study of diode laser and CO2 laser in the treatment of gingival hyperpigmentation

Abstract

Background: Pigmented gingival tissue, many a times forces the patients to seek treatment for esthetic periodontal therapy. Gingival hyperpigmenta- tion is caused by excessive deposition of melanin in the basal and suprabasal layers of epithelium. Materials and methods: This double blinded prospective study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of diode laser and CO2 laser in gingival depigmentation in ten patients using split mouth technique by evaluating the parameters like colour of the gingiva, bleeding, difficulties of the operator, pain, esthetic perception by the patient and post-operative wound healing. Out of 10 patients in the study group 6 were males and 4 were females. Gingival depigmentation was done from canine to canine in the upper anterior region. A total of 20 an- terior segments were treated: 10 randomly to Carbon dioxide & Diode Laser group using Flip coin method. The data collected were tabulated and statistical analysis was performed. Results & conclusion: The results of this study showed that the degree of pigmentation at the end of 4th week was less in diode group with 20% of the patient showing no pigmentation compared to CO2 group (10%). From our study, the first of its kind to compare the two lasers, we come to the conclusion that on comparing both the group, diode laser study group had appeared to be ef- fective in the management of gingival hyperpigmentation in terms of pain, bleeding intra operatively, difficulty of the operator, wound healing and esthetics.