Low-Level Laser Therapy for Facial Dysesthesia.

Background: Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is being used in several conditions because of its non-invasiveness. Facial dysesthesia due to nerve injuries is one of the challenging conditions to treat that has few effective remedies. Using LLLT in nerve recovery is the subject of few studies. Methods: Twenty-six patients suffering from facial dysesthesia/anesthesia because of trauma or after surgery who were 18-60 years old entered the study. According to the duration of their problems, we divided them into 3 groups: A (trauma less than 7 days old), B (trauma 7-30 days old) and C (trauma older than one month). The severity of dysesthesia/anesthesia was evaluated in each section using visual analog scale (VAS) and the improvement rate was the percentage of the differences in these scores as: Grade I: less than 10%, Grade II: 10%-30%, Grade III: 31%-60%, Grade IV: 61%-100%. Our laser was InGaArP diode laser (940 nm) made by the American Biolase Company, the power was 0.4 W, the exposure time for each point was 10 s, in continuous mode and the energy density was 5.08 J/cm2. Patients were irradiated by laser for 10 sessions (3 times a week). Results: We had 10 patients in group A with a mean improvement rate of 59.5% (SD = 26.5047). In group B, we had 7 patients whom mean improvement rate was 35.28% (SD=24.2674). Patients in group C were 9 with a mean improvement rate of 31.55% (SD=16.7191). Comparing between A and B group levels showed the significant difference between them (P = 0.037) which group A showed higher improvement rate than B and also the improvement rate of group A was significantly higher than group C (P = 0.007). But, despite the better results of group B in contrast with group C, the difference was not significant (P = 0.36). Although there are some researches on the effect of LLLT (of red/infrared laser) on paraesthesia or anesthesia, it seems there should be more surveys on the effect of time of referral for the laser therapy. The improvement of patients in group B was better than group C but the difference was not significant statistically. Conclusion: Laser therapy can improve facial trauma induced anesthesia/dysesthesia, especially in early referral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]