Resumo

PULIDO ROZO, Myriam Amparo; MADERA ANAYA, Meisser Vidal  e  TIRADO AMADOR, Lesbia Rosa. Laser vestibuloplasty: Case report. Rev. Odont. Mex [online]. 2014, vol.18, n.4, pp.259-262. ISSN 1870-199X.

One of the greatest challenges when rehabilitating fully edentulous patients, is to manufacture a denture to be placed on an alveolar ridge with advanced bone resorption. This requires performing pre-prosthetic surgery and prepare groundwork bone and surrounding soft tissues to receive a tissue-borne prosthesis, as well as providing suitable retention and support. This will elicit lesser trauma and thus allow prompt tissue healing. The case here presented is that of a 56 year old female, with non-contributory medical history. The patient had been wearing dentures for the last 14 years; her dentures were ill-adapted. Intra-oral clinical examination revealed collapsed and re-absorbed ridges. Due to a lack of retention in the lower ridges, a laser surgery was performed to deepen the vestibule. 18 days after surgery tissues were completely healed, the vestibule had recovered 6 mm depth in the anterior section and 4 mm in the posterior section. Rehabilitation was completed with the manufacture of full bi-maxillary dentures. It was thus concluded that laser vestibuloplasty confers depth to the vestibule and offers the advantages of laser incision, which decreases hemorrhage, provides better operating field and reduces post-operative inflammation and pain.

Palavras-chave : Laser therapy; low intensity laser therapy; vestibuloplasty.