Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Laser in Minor Oral Surgery: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Lasers in oral surgery have been extensively studied in recent years. Laser treatment is now a well-known technology that is frequently employed on oral soft tissues. The carbon dioxide (CO2) laser was one of the first soft tissue removal lasers. Because of the strong affinity of the CO2 laser to water, it is best used for removing, vaporizing, and coagulating these tissues. In minor oral surgery, CO2 laser therapy has shown advantages. Therefore, this study examined the CO2 laser use in minor oral soft tissue surgery. Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) standards were followed in this study. A question for research encompassing the inclusion criteria for the participants, intervention, comparison, outcome, and study design (PICOS) was formulated. The search queries were entered into the PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and Embase databases. Consideration was given to publications published between January 1, 2018 and March 15, 2023. Results: The research included 37 studies after narrowing search results, eliminating duplicate titles, and conducting an eligibility review (three animal studies, seven case reports, three case series, and twenty-four clinical studies). CO2 lasers alone or in combination with other therapies successfully treated oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs), oral tumors, oral fibrous-epithelial lesions, gingival melanin hyperpigmentation, pyogenic granuloma, socket preservation, mucocele, high labial frenulum attachment, and so on. CO2 lasers reduced intra- and postoperative complications and adverse effects, improved postoperative functional results, ablated tissues with precision, and minimized disease recurrence and malignant transformation. Conclusion: Our study found that the CO2 laser in oral minor surgeries is successful, but further randomized clinical trials and multicenter studies are recommended to compare CO2 laser surgery to other treatments.