Efficacy of adjunctive laser in non-surgical periodontal treatment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To evaluate the efficacy of the adjunctive laser therapy in conventional non-surgical treatment of chronic periodontitis, an electronic search was performed through the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and China Biology Medicine (CBM) Disc, for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs. All the 12 included studies (11 RCTs and 1 quasi-RCT) were qualified for descriptive and quantitative analysis. Outcomes were divided into two groups according to the length of follow-ups (long term and short term). Subgroup analyses were performed based on the mode of laser (inside and outside mode). Among all included researches, reduction in probing depth (PD) and gain in clinical attachment level (CAL) were presented with the mean value and 95 % confidence interval, while bleeding on probing (BOP) was assessed descriptively. Meta-analysis suggested that adjunctive laser therapy reduced PD at 3 months [mean difference (MD) = −0.26, 95 % confidence interval (CI) range = −0.43 to −0.09, p = 0.003] but did not demonstrate significant effect on the CAL at either 3 months (MD = −0.03, 95 % CI range = −0.25 to 0.19, p = 0.79) or 6 months (MD = −0.11, 95 % CI range = −0.38 to 0.16, p = 0.43). Subgroup analyses indicated that laser therapy would be more effective when the probes were set up outside the periodontal pockets.