title: Efficacy of low level laser therapy in the treatment of burning mouth syndrome: A systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic pain condition with indefinite cure, predominantly affecting post-menopausal women. The aim of this study was to systematically review the efficacy of low level laser therapy in the treatment of burning mouth syndrome (BMS).
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed, Embase and Scopus were searched from date of inception till and including October 2016 using various combinations of the following keywords: burning mouth syndrome, BMS, stomatodynia, laser therapy, laser treatment and phototherapy. The inclusion criteria were: Prospective, retrospective and case series studies. Letter to editors, reviews, experimental studies, studies that were not published in English, theses, monographs, and abstracts presented in scientific events were excluded. Due to heterogeneity of data no statistical analyses were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten clinical studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria, five of which were randomized clinical trials. In these studies, the laser wavelengths, power output and duration of irradiation ranged between 630-980nm, 20-300mW, 10s-15min, respectively. Most of studies reported laser to be an effective therapy strategy for management of BMS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Majority of the studies showed that laser therapy seemed to be effective in reducing pain in BMS patients. However, due to the varied methodologies and substantial variations in laser parameters among these studies, more clinical trials are required to ascertain the efficacy of laser for treating BMS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, AlFarabi Colleges, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Department of Oral Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Sanaa University, Yemen. Electronic address: Sadali05@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Sadeq Ali
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Al-Maweri
authors.affiliation: Department of General Dentistry, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester, 14620 Rochester, NY, USA. Electronic address: fawjav@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fawad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Javed
authors.affiliation: Department of preventive Dental Sciences, AlFarabi Colleges, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: docbutchi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Butchibabu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kalakonda
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, AlFarabi Colleges, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: dr2007nader@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Nader A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: AlAizari
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health' Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. Electronic address: walid.soneidar@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Walid
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Al-Soneidar
authors.affiliation: Department of preventive and pediatric Dentistry, Sana'a University, Yemen. Electronic address: aminakwa@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ameen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Akwa
mesh_terms: D002054:Burning Mouth Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D028022:Low-Level Light Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000532:radiotherapy
keywords: Burning mouth syndrome; Efficacy; Laser therapy