Cancer Science & Therapy

Effect of the Action of Laser Therapy used in the Treatment of Oral Mucositis in Temporal Follow-up

Abstract

Rafael Tavoni Pasciare, Milena Lenker Lamas, Paula Teresa Porto Nogueira, Erica Guilhen Mario, Heloisa Ciol, Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato and Antonio Eduardo de Aquino

Oral mucositis is the presence of generalized ulcers that affect tongue, soft palate and buccal floor, commonly found in patients treated for cancer with radiotherapy associated with chemotherapy. The disease can be classified in four degrees, being the first characterized by erythema and the fourth an aggravated condition that exposes the underlying connective tissue. Oral mucositis treatment consists mostly in administration of drugs to treat the symptoms caused by the disease. Low-intensity laser can be a drug-free option to alleviate the symptoms due to its analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect, improving the quality of life of the patient and reducing the cost and hospital stay. To evaluate the effect of low-intensity laser in oral mucositis, 24 patients (3 women and 21 men) were selected for treatment and pain was evaluated by the visual analogue scale (VAS). Analyses of the VAS showed that the laser treatment significantly reduced the pain (p<0.0006). Considering gender analyses, the pain evaluation of the female gender decreased 66.5% and male gender decreased 45.1%. In the present study, we found a marked reduction in the pain indexes (VAS), a fact that is directly related to the decrease in inflammation, as well as pain analgesia, leading to an oncological patient's pain relief, as well as the possibility of improving the quality of life