Comparision of carbon dioxide laser surgery and conventional surgery on intraoral soft tissue pathologies and histolopathological evaluation of the collateral thermal damage. yeditepe university health sciences institute msc thesis in oral surgery

CO2 laserapplications are referred as an alternative method for conventional surgery onoral soft tissues. The aim of the study is to compare CO2 laser and conventionalsurgery applied on oral soft tissue pathologies according to necessity ofanesthesia, intraoperative and postoperative complications, postoperative paincriterias and the evaluation of the effect of collateral thermal damage onhistopathological diagnosis. The study included 44 patient with a mean age of54,54±7,07 (11 men and 33 women) who had oral soft tissue pathologies. Thirtyninespecimens were examined histopathologically for determining collateralthermal damage. Ten patients needed local anesthesia after topical anestheticsin the laser treated group whereas all the patients were anesthetized with localanesthesia in the conventional group. In the laser treated group 7 patientneeded analgesics after the operation while 18 patients in the conventionalgroup. During the histopathological evaluation the collateral thermal damageon the incision line did not effect the histopathological diagnosis. In conclusion,CO2 laser is an effective instrument for soft tissue excisional biopsies withminimal intraoperative and postoperative complications and good pain control.Keywords: CO2 laser, soft tissue pathology, thermal injury.