CAN LOW REACTIVE-LEVEL LASER THERAPY (LLLT) BE USED IN THE TREATMENT OF NEUROGENIC FACIAL PAIN?
Laser Therapy, 1996:: 8: 247-252 ArneEckerdal and and Lehmann Bastian Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Medicine, Odense University Hospital, Denmark Neurogenic facial pain has been one of the more difficult conditions to treat, but the introduction of laser therapy now permits a residual group of patients hitherto untreatable to achieve a life free from or with less pain. The present investigation was designed as a doubleblind, placebo controlled study to determine whether low reactive-level laser therapy (LLLT) is effective for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. Two groups of patients (14 and 16) were treated with two probes. Neither the patients nor the dental surgeon were aware of which was the laser probe until the investigation had been completed. Each patient was treated weekly for five weeks. The results demonstrate that of 16 patients treated with the laser probe, 10 were free from pain after completing treatment and 2 had noticeably less pain, while in
