low-level laser therapy for the regeneration of mandibular bone defects in rabbits

Objective: this study aimed to assess the effect of low-level laser therapy (lllt) on the regeneration of mandibular bone defects in rabbits.methods: this animal study was conducted on 14 male albino rabbits. two circular defects 5 mm in diameter were created bilaterally at the angles of the mandible. one side was randomly selected to undergo laser therapy at a wavelength of 905 nm and a power of 20 mw for 2 minutes daily, starting immediately after surgery. the other side served as the sham-irradiated control. half of the rabbits were sacrificed on day 8, and the other half on day 15. the mandibles of sacrificed animals were resected and subjected to histopathological analysis to measure the percentage of mineralized bone, osteoid matrix and fibrous tissue as well as the number of blood vessels (as the indicator of angiogenesis), fibroblasts, and inflammatory cells. data were analyzed by paired t-test and independent samples t-test at the significance level of p<0.05.results: no statistically significant differences were observed between the laser-treated and control sides in any of the measured histopathological parameters at either the 8-day or 15-day time points (p>0.05). on the laser side, a significant increase was observed in the mean percentage of mineralized bone (p=0.022) and osteoid matrix (p=0.002) from day 8 to day 15. the control side revealed no significant changes in the evaluated parameters over time (p>0.05).conclusions: low-level laser irradiation may accelerate the regeneration of mandibular bone defects in rabbits.