Oral wound healing dilemma: recent treatment modalities using natural polysaccharide plant extracts and photobiomodulation

Abstract

Purpose: Oral wound healing is a challenging process with high bacterial and viral load that impairs normal oral functions. The purpose of this narrative review is to investigate the recent treatment modalities of oral mucosal wound healing using the natural polysaccharide plant extracts (NPPE) and photobiomodulation (PBM) as well as the synergistic effect of both therapies.

Methods: Specific keywords were applied to PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases. Twenty-four articles were selected after removing irrelevant studies including, fifteen studies investigating oral wound healing using NPPE, six using PBM, and three using PBM combined with NPPE. The included studies are ten in vitro studies, nine animal studies, and five clinical studies.

Results: Results verified effectiveness of different NPPE, PBM and their combination in improving healing of oral wounds owing to its anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant effects. When comparing individual modalities with combination therapy, the combined PBM and NPPE demonstrated better oral wound healing with superior pain relief, antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects, and less post-operative sensitivity.

Conclusion: NPPE are considered as adjunct treatment to enhance oral wound healing. PBM is considered a quick and effective treatment when used with correct power and frequency. NPPE combined with PBM demonstrated promising results compared to individual modalities, however, available studies are limited. More research is needed to investigate precise cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying effective oral wound healing using combination therapy to pave the way for potential novel therapeutic applications.