Efficacy of Diode Laser Therapy in Managing Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis and Oral Lichen Planus: A Systematic Review.

AIM To assess the effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy for managing oral lichen planus (OLP) and recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS), including their outcomes and patient satisfaction with the safety profile.

METHOD A systematic review was conducted by searching electronic databases like PubMed Central, PubMed, Cochrane, CrossRef, Google Scholar, and Embase. Articles published until June 2025 were reviewed using MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) and various combinations of the keywords: oral lichen planus, Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis, photobiomodulation therapy, and conventional drug therapy. We considered two different outcomes, such as pain and the size of the lesion. Due to the heterogeneity of the data, we did not conduct any statistical analysis.

RESULT Initially, 560 publications were selected for this review article, and after analyzing all these, only 12 articles fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In all those studies, the laser wavelength, power output, and duration of irradiation changed between 630-980 m, 20-30 mW, and 10 sec-15 min have been described. Topical medications used in the comparative group were amlexanox, triamcinolone acetonide, granofurin, and socosenyl. Our findings showed that the photobiomodulation laser group is more effective for decreasing the pain and lesion size of RAS and OLP in comparison with the topical medication group.

CONCLUSION We can conclude that photobiomodulation therapy was better for treating RAS and OLP with greater healing, patient satisfaction, and lower recurrence rate in comparison with other topical drug therapies.