Laser-Based Therapies in Oral Mucosal Diseases: Mechanisms, Clinical Applications, and Future Directions

School of Stomatology, Southern Medical University, 510515 Guangzhou, China

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

Oral mucosal diseases, including oral mucositis (OM), oral lichen planus (OLP), and oral leukoplakia (OLK), are prevalent disorders that severely impair patients’ quality of life, while conventional treatments have notable limitations such as high recurrence rate, adverse reactions, and limited radical efficacy. Laser based approaches have expanded from symptomatic relief to mechanism informed interventions that target inflammation, pain signaling, microbial load, and tissue repair. This review systematically elaborates the mechanisms of laser-based therapies, mainly including photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT), photodynamic therapy (PDT) and surgical laser, summarizes their clinical performance in OM, OLP and OLK management. Comparative data suggest meaningful advantages in pain control, healing dynamics, perioperative morbidity, and selected recurrence endpoints. Meanwhile, existing challenges including heterogeneous treatment protocols, insufficient long-term evidence, and inherent technical limitations are analyzed. This study aims to comprehensively evaluate the clinical efficacy, mechanisms and application prospects of laser therapies for oral mucosal diseases, and provide guidance for standardized clinical application and optimized intervention strategies.