Utilização do laser nos protocolos de controle da dor associada ao clareamento dentário de consultório

Abstract

Currently, due to the increasing aesthetic needs of patients, dental whitening is one of the most requested dental practices in the dental office. Several techniques have been developed to achieve adequate dental whitening, such as in-office whitening, home whitening, or a combination of both. In-office procedures are generally preferred by patients seeking rapid results, as well as those who have difficulty wearing trays at night due to concerns about ingesting whitening products at night. Dental sensitivity is the most common clinical consequence of this procedure, and can lead the patient to abandon treatment due to the discomfort caused. Low-level laser therapy may be a safe and effective alternative in the treatment of dental sensitivity due to its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, this study aimed to conduct an integrative review of the literature on the efficacy of using low-level laser therapy for the treatment of dental sensitivity caused by in-office dental whitening. To this end, a search was conducted in the Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and Pubmed databases, filtering articles published in English between 2019 and 2024, with inclusion criteria focused on clinical trials that used low-level laser therapy as a way to reduce discomfort caused by in-office whitening. A total of 554 articles were found, which underwent duplicate elimination and analysis of the inclusion and exclusion process, resulting in the selection of 5 articles. Low-level laser therapy has proven to be effective and, due to its practicality and easy application, may be an interesting resource in the management of pain associated with tooth whitening.