ABSTRACT
Objective:
To compare and evaluate the clinical efficacy of diode laser and cryosurgery for treating melanin pigmentation of gingiva.
Material and Methods:
A total of twenty-five subjects with physiological gingival pigmentation on the facial aspect of both maxillary and mandibular anterior arches (50 sites), both male and female, with an average age ranging from 18-35 years, participated in the study. The sites were randomly divided into Group I: depigmentation by Laser and Group II: depigmentation by Cryosurgery. The following parameters were assessed for the evaluation of treatment results: Melanin Oral Pigmentation Index (PI), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain evaluation and Healing index (HI). The data collected was statistically evaluated.
Results:
On intergroup comparison, there was no statistical difference in the score from baseline (p>0.05); however, a statistically significant difference was seen at the end of 1 year (p<0.05). Moreover, 57-60% of arches showed recurrence of pigmentation in the laser group whereas; only 12.7-17% recurrence was seen in the cryosurgery group at the end of the first year.
Conclusion:
Treatment of gingival hyperpigmentation with laser and cryosurgery shows a marked improvement of gingival pigmentation in both groups, but the cryosurgery depigmentation sites showed more sustainability.
Keywords:
Cryosurgery; Lasers; Melanins
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