Efficacy of photodynamic therapy in the treatment of symptomatic oral lichen planus: a systematic review

Abstract

Background

The aim of the present study was to systematically review the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the management of symptomatic oral lichen planus (OLP).

Materials and methods

PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and ISI Web of knowledge were searched until July 2017, using the following keywords: oral lichen planus, erosive lichen planus, lichen planus, and photodynamic therapy.

Results

Five clinical studies were included. The risk of bias was considered high in four studies and moderate in one study. The efficacy of PDT was compared with topical corticosteroids in all included studies. Laser wavelengths, duration of irradiation and power density ranged between 420 - 660 nm, 30s - 10 min, and 10-500 mW/cm², respectively. All studies reported PDT to be effective in the management of symptomatic OLP. Two studies reported PDT to be as effective as corticosteroids, one study reported a better efficacy of PDT compared to corticosteroids, whereas two studies found PDT to be inferior to corticosteroids.

Conclusions

The limited available evidence suggests that PDT is an effective treatment option for the management of OLP. However, due to the limited number of studies included in this review and heterogeneity among these studies, more well-designed clinical trials with adequate sample sizes are highly warranted.

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