Photobiomodulation therapy in the treatment of periodontal disease: a literature review

Abstract

Many studies in the literature address the effect of photobiomodulation therapy in the management of pathologies related to periodontal tissue. Due to the lack of standardized information and the absence of a consensus, this review presents the recent evidence on the effect of photobiomodulation (PBM) on proliferation of fibroblast cells and osteoblast cells in periodontal tissues. The literature and original research articles were used to investigate the effect of photobiomodulation therapy in periodontal diseases. Online MEDLINE/PubMed and Google scholar were used. Access dates were between 2010 and 2017. The research was confined to English-language literature. The literature search retrieved references on proliferation of fibroblast cells and osteoblast cells. Each topic is individually addressed in this review. In total, 13 14 relevant photobiomodulation articles were included in the review, comprising work completed on a variety of cell types and places. Although results consistently demonstrated the potential of laser irradiation to affect cellular proliferation in a wavelength- and dosage-dependent manner, the relevance of other key irradiation parameters, such as irradiance, to such effects remained unclear. The literature review showed several positive results of the PBM on proliferation of fibroblast cells and osteoblast cells in periodontal tissues.