Purpose: The present study systematically reviewed randomised controlled trials (RCT) to investigate the efficacy of Er:YAG laser (ERL) as a debridement method in surgical treatment of advanced peri-implantitis.
Materials and methods: An electronic database search and a manual search were performed until March 2022. Outcome measures were clinical attachment level (CAL) gain, probing depth (PD) reduction, plaque index (PI) and bleeding on probing (BOP). The addressed PICO question was: Is ERL an effective debridement tool in the surgical treatment of advanced peri-implantitis?
Results: Five eligible randomised clinical trials (RCTs) were included in the qualitative analysis, one of which had unclear risk of bias. One study reported a statistically significant difference in terms of implant CAL gain and PD reduction in favour of the experimental group vs the control group, while four studies did not report any difference between the two groups.
Conclusion: Due to methodological heterogeneity, such as non-standard control groups and laser parameters, this systematic review demonstrated inconclusive findings in terms of the efficacy of Er:YAG laser as a debridement method in surgical treatment of advanced peri-implantitis. The results of this review should be considered preliminary and further, well-designed studies with standardised comparators with laser parameters are warranted.
Keywords: Er:YAG laser; efficacy; peri-implantitis; systematic review.