Effect of Caries Removal using Laser Technique on pain levels and anxiety in children:A meta-analysis
Objective:This study aims to conduct a systematic review on the impact of laser technique in caries re-moval on pain levels and anxiety in children.Methods:Randomized controlled trials(RCTs)related to laser technique on caries removal in children were collected from CNKI,VIP database,CBM,Web of Science,Wanfang Database,The Cochrane library,PubMed,and Embase from inception to January 2024.Two reviewers independently screened the literature,assessed the quality and extracted the data.The final analysis was performed using Stata 15.0 and RevMan 5.3 software.Results:Eight RCTs were included in this study-four RCTs and four own-control studies involving 399 patients(538 teeth).Meta-anal-ysis results showed that laser technique in caries removal reduced pain levels in children(Z=5.33,P<0.05),children found laser treatment more comfortable(Z=2.06,P<0.05),and they were more likely to choose laser treatment for their next pro-cedure(Z=7.16,P<0.05).Conclusion:Available evidence suggests that laser can effectively reduce pain levels and anxiety in children while also being well-received by them as a treatment option.However,due to the limited number of included studies,the above conclusions need further verification.