The Effect of Laser Irradiation on Fluoride Uptake on Enamel and Dentine with Topical Fluoride Application: a Systematic Review

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to examine if laser irradiation enhances fluoride uptake on human enamel and dentine with topical fluoride application. Methods: A systematic search of the articles archived in the PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and ScienceDirect databases was performed. The titles and abstracts of the initially identified articles were screened. Duplicated articles, non-English articles, reviews and irrelevant studies were removed. The remaining articles were retrieved with full texts. The data were extracted from the included studies for meta-analysis. Results: The search identified 143 potentially relevant articles. A total of 75 duplicated articles were removed. Fifty articles were excluded after screening of the titles and abstracts, leaving 18 articles for full-text analysis. In additional 3 articles were identified from the references of the included articles. Therefore, 21 were included in the systematic review. Fifteen studies reported lasers increased fluoride uptake on enamel, and the remaining 6 studies reported lasers increased fluoride uptake on dentine. Diode, Nd:YAG, Er:YAG and carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers could increase the fluoride uptake of enamel and dentine with topical fluoride application. The most commonly studied laser was the CO2 laser, and there were 8 studies. Meta-analysis of 6 studies found CO2 laser irradiation enhanced fluoride uptake on enamel, with a standardised mean difference of 1.56 (95% CI: 0.58–2.54, p=0.002) Conclusions: Dental laser irradiation may increase fluoride uptake on human enamel and dentine with topical fluoride application. CO2 laser is the most commonly studied laser.