THE BENEFITS OF LOW-LEVEL LASER THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER PATIENTS WITH ORAL MUCOSITIS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The therapeutic resources used in the treatment of cancer patients alter their immune system, leaving the patient susceptible to the development of alterations throughout the body. In the oral cavity, the most frequent alteration is Oral Mucositis (OM), which is defined as an inflammation of the oral cavity, clinically manifesting through painful, erythematous, or ulcerated lesions of the oral mucosa.Low-level laser therapy has proven to be an efficient and non-invasive therapeutic and preventive technique that provides pain relief and reduces the intensity and severity of the symptoms of this pathology. From this perspective, it is worthwhile to describe the importance and advantages of using this technique for patients with oral mucositis. This work used the following databases: Scielo, PubMed, BVS, and Scopus in order to gather relevant articles and conduct an integrative literature review on this topic. The importance of photobiomodulation as a therapy that helps prevent disease recurrence and reduces the severity of cases has been established, as it promotes pain relief for the patient and accelerates tissue healing, thus being fundamental to improving the quality of life of patients.