The surgical extraction of the lower third molar is widely practiced in oral surgery. Inflammatory complications such as pain, swelling, and trismus can cause discomfort to the patients after third molar extraction. Several methods have been used to reduce these postoperative sequelae, including the use of corticosteroids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, antibiotics, less traumatic surgical methods, and the use of photobiomodulation. This narrative review summarizes the current evidence on the effect of photobiomodulation on pain, facial swelling and trismus after third molar surgery. A literature search using MEDLINE (NCBI PubMed and PMC), EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar was undertaken up to October 2021. Forty-one articles met the inclusion criteria. Photobiomodulation can be considered an alternative and useful method for controlling pain following impacted wisdom tooth surgery. The effectiveness of PBM in reducing swelling and trismus is still controversial. This review highlights the lack of consensus in the literature on protocols used in PBM therapy.

Background: The present study analyzes the clinical aspects of the use of small-diameter implants for the fixation of total overdenture-type prostheses on both totally edentulous dental arches. Materials and methods: This is a review of all randomized controlled trials of at least ten patients with a control group in which at least two narrow implants were placed, published between January 2010 and July 2023. Most databases were analyzed, and clinical studies involving the insertion of at least two narrow implants (<3.5 mm in diameter) were analyzed. Results: Studies showed that the survival rate of narrow implants varied from 78% to 100%. Conclusions: The results indicated that narrow-type implants have satisfactory and predictable clinical performance for the long-term stability of overdenture-type prostheses.

The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate thermal effects on implant surfaces using a 445 nm diode laser (Eltech K-Laser Srl, Treviso, Italy) with different power settings and irradiation modalities. Fifteen new implants (Straumann, Basel, Switzerland) were irradiated to evaluate surface alteration. Each implant was divided into two zones: the anterior and posterior areas. The anterior coronal areas were irradiated with a distance of 1 mm between the optical fiber and the implant; the anterior apical ones were irradiated with the fiber in contact with the implant. Instead, the posterior surfaces of all of the implants were not irradiated and used as control surfaces. The protocol comprised two cycles of laser irradiation, lasting 30 s each, with a one-minute pause between them. Different power settings were tested: a 0.5 W pulsed beam (T-on 25 ms; T-off 25 ms), a 2 W continuous beam and a 3 W continuous beam. Lastly, through a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, dental implants’ surfaces were evaluated to investigate surface alterations. No surface alterations were detected using a 0.5 W laser beam with a pulsed mode at a distance of 1 mm. Using powers of irradiation of 2 W and 3 W with a continuous mode at 1 mm from the implant caused damage on the titanium surfaces. After the irradiation protocol was changed to using the fiber in contact with the implant, the surface alterations increased highly compared to the non-contact irradiation modality. The SEM results suggest that a power of irradiation of 0.5 W with a pulsed laser light emission mode, using an inactivated optical fiber placed 1 mm away from the implant, could be used in the treatment of peri-implantitis, since no implant surface alterations were detected.