Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been increasingly used over the past few decades in both medicine and dentistry. It has been suggested that LLLT may be helpful in pulpal wound healing following pulp exposure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the histological changes in dental pulp tissue after a pulpotomy procedure using a low-level diode laser in comparison with the gold standard formocresol.

In this experimental split-mouth study, 20 teeth were randomly selected from five dogs. The animals were anesthetized and pulpotomized using a low-level diode laser (660 nm, 36 mW) and formocresol respectively. One week later, the pulpotomized teeth were extracted and subjected to histological evaluation. Histological changes seen in the pulp tissues of all the interventional groups were subjected to statistical analysis using Mann–Whitney U test for pairwise comparison; p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant and p > 0.05 nonsignificant.

On histologic evaluation, least amount of inflammation and maximal healing was evident in the LLLT group. On the contrary, the formocresol group showed severe inflammation.

Low-level laser therapy promises to be a safe, minimally invasive, yet maximally effective modality for pulpotomy.

Prabhakar AR, Shagale AM, Yavagal C. Histological Evaluation of a Novel Pulpotomy Technique with Low-level Laser Therapy and Its Comparison with Formocresol: A Randomized Animal Trial. Int J Laser Dent 2016;6(1):1-5.