Clinical effect of diode laser on peri-implant tissues during non-surgical peri-implant mucositis therapy: Randomized controlled clinical study

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to evaluate the response to the non-surgical treatment of peri-implant mucositis using the diode laser as an adjuvant therapy in patients with implant-supported restorations, in terms of clinical variables, with respect to those patients in whom conventional non-surgical therapy is used. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Randomized controlled clinical trial with simple blind 3 months follow-up. Two groups of patients were established, the non-surgical mechanical debridement of the affected implants was performed in the control group (n = 34) and the diode laser therapy was also performed in the test group (n = 34). The implant was considered the study subject; the variables considered were plaque index, bleeding on probing depth, depth of probing and recession of the peri-implant mucosa. The t-Student test was used to establish the intergroup statistical differences and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to measures intragroup differences over time. RESULTS: In the revaluation at 6 weeks, we observed statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between the variables of plaque index and depth of probing between both groups. The test group obtained an average of 0.248 ± 0.3155 in plaque index and 0.833 ± 0.374mm in the depth of probing compared to the results obtained in the control group that was 0.558 ± 0.526 and 1,137 ± 0.222mm respectively. In the 3-month reevaluation, was also obtained great statistical significance between both groups for bleeding on probing (p<0.001), with values of 0.568 ± 0.282 for the control group and 0.480 ± 0.336 for the test group. CONCLUSIONS: The use of diode laser as an adjunctive therapy to the conventional treatment of peri-implant mucositis showed promising results, being more effective reducing the inflammation of the peri-implant tissue, positioning itself as a valuable tool for the treatment of peri-implant pathologies. Key words:Peri-implant diseases, peri-implant mucositis, laser therapy, diode laser, biostimulation.