Clinical and Histopathological Evaluation of Healing After Excision of Leukoplakia with Diode Laser

Aim: Oral Leukoplakia is considered commonest precancerous white lesion affecting oral mucosa. There are several medicinal and surgical options available to treat the lesion. Scalpel removal of the lesion leads to scar formation and pain along with bleeding at the time of surgery. Removal with Laser is another option for managing leukoplakia. There are very few studies present with removal of leukoplakia using Diode Laser. This study was undertaken to clinically and histopathologically evaluate the efficacy of Diode Laser in leukoplakia. Materials and Method: Six patients, 5 male (84%) and 1 female (16%) with leukoplakia were treated with Diode laser (980nm) at 3 - 4 watts. Patients on steroid therapy or immune-suppressants and suffering from any other chronic debilitating diseases were excluded from the study. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was applied for assessing the p-Value for statistical analysis. Result: After one month, the patients were examined for normal clinical healing of the site. For more confirmation, re-biopsy was done and result showed normal tissue healing except in one patient (16%). Only one patient (16%) developed pain, swelling, fibrosis and recurrence.