Laser: A boon during the COVID pandemic in aerosol mitigation - A systematic review

ABSTRACT

The scientific community was always intrigued by the indoor air quality in dental offices. The unexpected emergence of the COVID pandemic has put greater challenges on dental professionals. Shortly after the declaration of coronavirus as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, the American Dental Association abstained the dental society from providing routine dental procedures. An evidence-based review of the literature was conducted electronically using three databases, PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar between January 2005 to December 2021. Three articles were selected for the qualitative analysis out of 41 screened articles from the databases. The evidence suggests that there is a significant reduction in aerosol generation with laser when compared to conventional treatment modalities. Laser-assisted treatment procedures bring the dentist and patients a step closer to providing safe dental treatments and reducing the risk of transmission of disease.