title: Effectiveness of Laser Therapy in the Management of Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis: A Systematic Review.
abstract: Objectives. Laser therapy is a promising new treatment for patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS). However, the clinical effect and security issue of laser therapy remain controversial. This systematic review was conducted to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and security of laser treatment in RAS patients.Methods. Five electronic databases were searched (MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, ScienceDirect, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science) to identify all studies that were about randomized controlled clinical trials, involving the effect of laser therapy in RAS patients.Conclusion. Twenty-three studies were retained for full-text analysis after screening the titles and abstracts of potential articles, but only 10 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria after the full texts were reviewed. The included studies reported a comparison of the effectiveness between the laser treatment and placebo laser therapy (or conventional drug therapy) when managing the RAS patients. It can be concluded that laser therapy has the superiority in relieving ulcer pain and shortening healing time when compared with placebo group or medical treatment group. Although laser therapy is a promising effective treatment for RAS, high-quality clinical studies with large sample size must be further performed to confirm the effectiveness of this therapy.
authors.affiliation: College & Hospital of Stomatology, Key Lab of Oral Diseases Research of Anhui Province, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4288-1534
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: College & Hospital of Stomatology, Key Lab of Oral Diseases Research of Anhui Province, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: College & Hospital of Stomatology, Key Lab of Oral Diseases Research of Anhui Province, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Quan-Li
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3546-5663
authors.initials: QL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College & Hospital of Stomatology, Key Lab of Oral Diseases Research of Anhui Province, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: The 2nd Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230601, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: The Hospital of Anhui Province, Hefei 230001, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Hong
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Zhang