Abstract
Introduction: an attractive smile is determined by the form, color shade and teeth alignment in the dental arch as well as the gingiva. The normal color of gingiva is pale pink, but part of the population has a dark shade of the gingiva, this dark color shade is caused by an excessive melanin deposition by the melanocytes mainly present in the basal and suprabasal cell layers of the epithelium. The aim of this review to evaluate two different methods of gingival depigmentation Diode laser and scalpel blade in terms of post-operative pain, healing, patients satisfaction and recurrence of pigmentation.
Methodology: An electronic search was carried out in PubMed database and google scholar for related studies published from 2009 to 2015 using the following keywords: gingival hyperpigmentation and gingival depigmentation and scalpel blade and diode laser.
Results: 11 studies were yielded from the searching in the literature, 4 of them were excluded according to the criteria mentioned above. Only studies that compared diode laser to scalpel blade depigmentation were evaluated in this review.
Conclusion: Taking into consideration the excellent outcome, patient satisfaction and efficiency of the procedure, the diode laser is an excellent alternative technique of gingival depigmentation. Clinical trials with large sample sizes are needed for reliable results.