Topical photodynamic therapy in the treatment of benign oral mucosal lesions: A systematic review

Abstract

Background The introduction of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in various branches of the dental field such as endodontics, implantology, periodontology, and restorative dentistry and oral medicine has become useful in recent decades. This systematic review presents an overview of the literature to evaluate the usefulness of topical PDT for the treatment of benign oral soft tissue lesions and to identify limitations in prior studies to improve PDT applications. Methods We performed a review of the literature using different search engines (PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library) employing MeSH terms such as "Photodynamic therapy" and "PDT" in conjunction with other terms. We utilized the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Study design (PICOS) method to define our study eligibility criteria. Results Initial results were 1513. Finally, there were only 21 studies that met our selection criteria. We divided the 21 selected items into two groups: inflammatory diseases and infective diseases. Conclusions Although topical PDT is an easy to perform and well‐tolerated treatment and appears to be a valid method with promising results in the treatment of benign lesions of the oral cavity's soft tissues, further studies are needed to complete the current knowledge of this technique.

Personalized Medicine in Oral Oncology: Imaging Methods and Biological Markers to Support Diagnosis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC): A Narrative Literature Review

“…Furthermore, the improvement of the knowledge of the interaction between cancer and bacteria, as well as among chronic inflammation, cancer, and immune modulation, could lead in the future toward personalized approaches based on less invasive and more sensitive therapies, such as photodynamic therapy, gene therapy, probiotic therapy, engineered vaccines, or monoclonal antibodies [ 219 , 220 , 221 , 222 , 223 , 224 , 225 , 226 , 227 , 228 , 229 , 230 , 231 , 232 , 233 , 234 , 235 ].…”

Photodynamic Therapy Using 5-Aminolevulinic Acid (Ala) for the Treatment of Chronic Periodontitis: A Prospective Case Series

“…The direct method involves high-energy photons directly damaging vital parts of bacterial cells, while the indirect antimicrobial PDT can be described as an oxygen-dependent photochemical reaction generated by the activation of a PS through a light source. The combination of a non-toxic PS, visible light with appropriate wavelength and oxygen leads to the production of highly reactive and cytotoxic ROS (singlet oxygen), consequently destroying cells [63][64][65][66][67][68]. The randomized controlled split-mouth clinical trial by Birang et al [69] evaluated the role of adjunctive PDT in patients suffering from chronic periodontitis, highlighting significant short-term improvements (three months follow-up) in terms of bacterial count, CAL, and PD.…”

Noninvasive Imaging Methods to Improve the Diagnosis of Oral Carcinoma and Its Precursors: State of the Art and Proposal of a Three-Step Diagnostic Process

“…A variant of AF is fluorescence induced by exogenous fluorophores, such as toluidine blue or 5-amino-laevulinic acid [125]. In these cases, exogenous fluorophores are not only used for diagnostic purposes but also for low-dose laser therapy techniques such as photodynamic therapy (PDT), which is a minimally invasive treatment for malignant and premalignant lesions, previously diagnosed by conventional biopsy, according to the selective destruction of only cells that retain fluorophores topically administered to the dysplastic/neoplastic lesion [126][127][128][129][130][131].…”