Summary
Introduction. Pemphigus vulgaris is a relatively rare, chronic,
autoimmune vesiculobullous disorder characterized by formation
of intraepithelial vesiculae and/or bullae in the skin and mucous
membrane. Systemic steroids are considered to be the standard
first-line therapy for pemphigus vulgaris. However, for patients
unresponsive to standard therapy, the new treatment modalities
are being sought. Low-level laser therapy has been accepted as an
alternative or adjunctive treatment modality for many conditions
in medicine and dentistry. Therefore, this study was aimed at presenting the effects of low-level laser therapy in the treatment of
pemphigus vulgaris and to emphasize the crucial role of dentists
in early recognition and diagnosis of pemphigus vulgaris. Material and Methods. The articles published until May 2013 were
obtained from the Medline/PubMed online database, using following search terms and key words: ”laser therapy” and ”pemphigus vulgaris”, ”low-level laser irradiation” and ”pemphigus vulgaris”, ”lasers” and ”pemphigus vulgaris” and ”pemphigus vulgaris”. Results. Low-level laser therapy could result in immediate
and significant analgesia and improved wound healing within the
observation period and follow-up. Furthermore, a decrease in patients’ discomfort as well as the absence of recurrence of the pemphigus vulgaris lesions has been claimed. Conclusion. Even
though available literature suggests that low-level laser therapy
can be efficiently used in treatment of oral pemphigus vulgaris,
either independently or as a part of combined therapy approach,
these results should be interpreted with caution since there are no
solid evidence-based proofs to provide the guidelines for the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris with low-level laser therapy. Therefore, further long-term randomized controlled clinical studies are
necessary in order to give any solid recommendations on the use
of low-level laser therapy in the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris.