The effects of photobiomodulation therapy for treatment of alveolar osteitis (Dry Socket): Systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Dry socket (alveolar osteitis) is one of the most common complications that occur after the extraction of permanent teeth. The aim of this review was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of photobiomodulation (PBT) with other treatment methods on alveolar osteitis.

Methods and materials: MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus and Cochrane's CENTRAL online databases were searched based on the search strategy. Also, the prominent laser journals and the references of relevant studies were hand searched for eligible studies and then the data were extracted from the retrieved studies were extracted using piloted custom forms. The data were combined and analyzed using inverse-variance random-effect meta-analysis.

Results: For the treatment of dry socket, pain perception based on the VAS score, PBT on average has a 3.41 higher pain level reduction compared to alveogyl which seems to be both statistically and clinically significant. In addition, based on the GRADE score, the evidence seems to be of moderate quality. Also, in the individual studies which were included in this systematic review, PBT seems to be more effective than other methods (Salicept, zinc-oxide eugenol, ozone, and photodynamic therapy) in pain reduction of patients with alveolar osteitis.

Conclusions: PBT, in general, has a higher ability in decreasing pain levels for patients with alveolar osteitis (dry socket) compared to alveogyl. Therefore, PBT could be used as an appropriate method for treatment and controlling the signs of dry socket.

Keywords: Dry socket; Low level laser therapy; PBT; Pain perception; Photodynamic therapy; Re-epithelialization; Visual analog scale; Wound healing.