COMPARISON OF LOW-LEVEL LASER THERAPY AND MMP-9 LEVELS ON WOUND HEALING FOLLOWING OPEN FLAP DEBRIDEMENT IN CHRONIC PERIODONTITIS PATIENTS: A SPLIT-MOUTH RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL

Periodontitis is a chronic multifactorial inflammatory disease associated with dysbiotic plaque biofilms and characterized by progressive destruction of the tooth-supporting apparatus.Its main characteristics include gingival bleeding, periodontal pocketing, radiographically measured alveolar bone loss, and clinical attachment loss (CAL), which indicate a loss of periodontal tissue support.

Treatment for periodontitis should be administered gradually, with the first part emphasizing on enhancing the patient’s oral hygiene practices and managing risk factors, and the second part focusing on expert removal of calculus and supragingival biofilm, either with or without adjunctive therapies. The third phase of treatment is centered on either regenerating or resecting lesions that complicate the management of periodontitis by access flap surgery, or on treating sites that did not respond well to the second phase of therapy to gain access to deep pocket sites for successful debridement as well as to enable effective self-plaque control. However, a several of adverse effects after periodontal surgery including discomfort, edema, and inflammation.Additionally, Low Level Laser Therapy exhibits anti-inflammatory properties and promotes analgesic effects on acute and chronic pain, restoration of microcapillary circulation, normalization of vascular wall permeability, and reduction of edema.MMPs can be considered a risk factor for periodontal disease, and measurements of MMP-9 levels may be useful as markers for early detection of periodontitis and as a tool to assess prognostic follow-ups

On thorough literature search we didn’t come across any study which describes the effect of LLLT (Using 660nm) in wound healing and levels of MMP-9 following open flap debridement in chronic periodontitis patients.Thus, this study aims to assess the effectiveness of LLLT done in conjunction with open flap debridement on  wound healing, and in MMP-9 levels in chronic periodontitis patients