GaAlAs Diode Laser Application in Cause-Related Periodontal Therapy

Introduction: The use of Gallium-Aluminium-Arsenide (GaAlAs) diode lasers in the cause-related phase of periodontal therapy is not well documented in the literature. Out of 278 papers documenting the use of various lasers in periodontal therapy, only 4 dealt with diode lasers, and of those only 1 focussed on GaAlAs diode lasers. Objectives: To measure the effectiveness of GaAlAs-diode application to conventional cause-related periodontal therapy in a split-mouth study design by using the parameters bleeding on probing, plaque index and clinical attachment loss. Materials and Methods: Patients who presented with generalized chronic periodontitis (moderate) were included in this study. A split-mouth design was utilized for control purposes, and all affected sites received conventional cause-related periodontal therapy. Thereafter, the GaAlAs was applied to the half of the sites in either the left or the right upper and lower quadrants. Six weeks review data which included plaque and bleeding indices and clinical attachment loss were compared to baseline data. Results: An overall improvement was found in all sites for the parameters of plaque index and bleeding on probing. Although these parameters improved more for the sites treated with additional GaAlAs diode laser application than in the sites treated by conventional periodontal therapy only, this difference was not statistically significant. Also, there was no significant difference in the outcomes of clinical attachment loss between the two groups. Conclusions: Conventional periodontal therapy remains the gold-standard in the treatment of generalized chronic periodontitis. Adjunctive GaAlAs-diode laser application may produce long-term benefits with improved confidence, but more long-term studies are required.