Photonics-based treatments: Mechanisms and applications in oral infectious diseases

Infectious diseases remain a serious global challenge threatening human health. Oral infectious diseases, a major neglected global problem, not only affect people’s lifestyles but also have an intimate association with systemic diseases. Antibiotic therapy is a common treatment. However, the emergence of new resistance problems hindered and enhanced the complication of the treatment. Currently, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) has long been the topic of intense interest due to the advantage of being minimally invasive, low toxicity, and high selectivity. aPDT is also becoming increasingly popular and applied in treating oral diseases such as tooth caries, pulpitis, periodontal diseases, peri-implantitis, and oral candidiasis. Photothermal therapy (PTT), another phototherapy, also plays an important role in resisting resistant bacterial and biofilm infections. In this mini-review, we summarize the latest advances in photonics-based treatments of oral infectious diseases. The whole review is divided into three main parts. The first part focuses on photonics-based antibacterial strategies and mechanisms. The second part presents applications for photonics-based treatments of oral infectious diseases. The last part discusses present problems in current materials and future perspectives.