Clinical trial to compare conventional incision technique and diode laser on the treatment of oral submucous fibrosis

Introduction: Oral mucosal lesions are the most common lesions encountered by the dentist or physician during oral health screening. Oral submucous fibrosis is a common potentially malignant disorder associated with limited mouth opening due to fibrosis and muscle changes in the submucosa. The present study was carried out to compare the two surgical interventions for Oral submucous fibrosis using conventional scalpel technique and diode laser technique for the surgical excision of the fibrotic bands to improve the mouth opening for the patients and also to assess the post-operative pain and healing. Aims and Objectives: The present study was designed to analyze two treatment modalities of Oral submucous fibrosis using diode laser and scalpel surgery and to compare the outcome of both the interventions regarding postoperative pain and mouth opening. Materials and Method: A total of 20 patients (16 males and 4 females) were included in the study. The patients were divided equally and randomly into the treatment groups i.e., conventional scalpel technique and diode laser in a continuous mode after obtaining prior informed consent. Patients in Group A were treated with conventional scalpel technique while in group B were treated using Diode laser technique and followed up for a period of 3 months periodically. Results: The mean age of the study group was 32±15.38 years. The results of the present study showed significant changes in the mouth opening (pre-operative and post-operative comparison) for both the groups using One-way ANOVA and Bonferroni correction. Study groups also reflected highly significant difference for Post-operative pain assessed in VAS scale using Paired “t-test”.Conclusion: Fibrectomy with diode laser is an effective method with several advantages over the traditional methods and can safely be done in the patients with advanced stage of Oral submucous fibrosis. Diode lasers can be used as alternative instruments for excisional biopsies of oral soft tissue lesions. Intra- and postoperative complications are rare, with minor bleeding being the only complication observed during surgical procedures.