Laser therapy versus topical desensitising agents in the management of dentine hypersensitivity: A meta‐analysis

Objectives To compare the effectiveness of lasers and topical desensitising agent treatments for dentine hypersensitivity. Methods PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE and ISI Web of Knowledge were electronically searched without restrictions. Study search, selection, data extraction and assessment of risk of bias were conducted independently by two reviewer authors. All analyses were performed using Review Manager 5.3 (Cochrane Collaboration). Results This meta‐analysis included 13 eligible studies that compared topical desensitising agents and Nd:YAG or diode laser. Four, six and three studies were considered to have low, moderate and high risks of bias, respectively. The follow‐up period varied from immediate to 9 months. All comparisons except the 3‐month Nd:YAG laser parallel group and 6‐month diode laser group showed that the clinical efficacy of lasers for dentine hypersensitivity was not significantly different with topical desensitising agents. Conclusion We found low‐quality evidence that was insufficient to draw any conclusions regarding the superiority of lasers or conventional topical desensitising agents in the treatment of DH. Further well‐designed RCTs on this topic are needed to draw definitive conclusions.