AIM:To analyze the available scientific evidence on the effectiveness of laser therapy compared to the topical desensitizing agents in the treatment of dentinal hypersensitivity.
Materials and methods:A broad literature search was performed using both electronic database and hand search. The databases like COCHRANECENTRAL, MEDLINE, GOOGLE SCHOLAR, EBSCO HOST, PROQUEST were used for online data search and hand search was performed in the central library of the institute to identify the relevant articles. Articles that satisfied the inclusion criteria with description of randomized clinical trials comparing lasers versus topical desensitising agents in the treatment of dentinal hypersensitivity were included. These included studies were subjected to critical analysis following the Cochrane Collaboration tool for evaluating the risk of bias.
Results:The initial search resulted in 65 articles; however, 31 of these articles were excluded because they were duplicates and then 20 articles were excluded as they were not clinical trials. After analyzing the full text from 24 clinical trials, 17 were excluded because they did not fulfill all the selection criteria. Our final review included 7 studies. Of these 7 studies 1 study used Nd:YAG laser system, 4 studies used GaALAS laser, one study used Er:YAG laser and one study used both CO2 and Er:YAG laser. Among the seven studies 5 studies reported that the lasers alone or in combination with topical desensitising agents are superior over topical desensitising agents used alone. Remaining 2 studies reported that both lasers and topical desensitising agents were equally effective in reducing dentinal hypersensitivity.
Conclusion:With the constraints of limited available literature lasers alone or in combination with topical desensitising agents showed promising results than topical desensitising agent alone and this desensitizing efficacy of lasers was immediate and long lasting.
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