Effect of Photobiomodulation on the Incidence of Alveolar Osteitis and Postoperative Pain following Mandibular Third Molar Surgery: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial

The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy for the prevention of incidence of alveolar osteitis (AO) and postoperative pain following third molar surgery. In this double-blind clinical trial, the impacted teeth of patients having bilateral impacted mandibular third molars were surgically extracted; for each participant, one socket was randomly assigned to receive photobiomodulation treatment, the other received sham treatment. 660 nm 200 mW CW was applied at a distance of similar to 1cm to 4 points on the occlusal area of extraction socket (beam area at the tissue similar to 0.64 cm(2), 312.5 mW cm(-2), 1J, 1.6 J cm(-2)). Also, 810 nm 200 mW CW was applied at tissue surface at three points on the buccal and three points on the lingual gingiva, for 15 s (400 mW cm(-2), 3 J, 6 J cm(-2)). There was a statistically meaningful difference in AO frequency between the two groups, and the photobiomodulation group showed lower AO frequency compared with the sham PBM treatment (P-value = 0.035). According to the findings of this study, photobiomodulation therapy reduced the incidence of AO following surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars. The incidence of AO typically occurs 3-7 days post-extraction, and our results suggest that PBM treatment within the 7 days could help reduce the risk of AO development.

Automated summary

This study confirmed the effectiveness of using photobiomodulation therapy in reducing the incidence of alveolar osteitis following surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars, and suggested that treatment within 7 days post-extraction could help reduce the risk of AO development.