An Overview of Diode Laser-Assisted Oral Surgery

Among all lasers with generally accepted surgical capabilities, the diode laser is most commonly used for the surgical removal of proliferating lesions and the photocoagulation of venous malformations of the oral cavity. The laser provides several advantages for clinicians, including an absence of intraoperative bleeding and no need for stitches. The laser benefits patients because it reduces postoperative edema and pain, with fast mucosal restoration during healing by second intention. We report a case series to highlight the capabilities of the diode laser in oral surgery procedures along with our suggestions.

Diode Laser Surgery of Recurrent White Lesion of the Lip: Clinicopathological Consideration and Cosmetic Outcome

Conventional surgery for potentially malignant lesions of the lip may result in unaesthetic sequela. Diode laser allows a careful surgical excision of lip lesions without intraoperative bleeding and stitches, promoting a fast mucosal healing, thereby leading to a complete restitutio ad integrum of lip mucosa without aesthetic complications.

Diode Laser Excision of Blandin-Nuhn Mucocele

The glands of Blandin and Nuhn are mixed mucous and serous glands that are embedded within the musculature of the anterior tongue ventrum. The differential diagnosis for lesions in that area is often challenging and includes other salivary and nonsalivary lesions. This affects decision-making, surgical management, and measures to prevent complications. Unlike conventional cold blade surgery, diode laser use may simplify such treatment.

Laser Vestibuloplasty for Peri-implant Gingiva Implementation in the Atrophic Mandible of a Medically Compromised Patient

Despite the good clinical outcomes of the conventional technique of vestibulopasty performed with a scalpel, patients frequently perceive pain and discomfort after surgery. Diode laser use in oral surgery is, instead, well tolerated as it is mini-invasive and with a very low occurrence of post-surgical complications. In addition, the lack of bleeding during surgery and the reduced/absent post-surgical edema makes diode laser surgery the most suitable for medically compromised patients. We report a case of vestibuloplasty performed by diode laser in a patient on therapy with warfarin and without drug discontinuation.

Diode Laser Photocoagulation of Oral Venous Malformations in Patients on Anticoagulant Therapy Without Drug Discontinuation

The diode laser is widely used for the treatment of venous malformations of the oral cavity nowadays. Anticoagulant therapy is usually modified or suspended in patients needing oral surgery, especially for vascular lesion treatment. We report a case series of venous malformations in patients on anticoagulant therapy treated by diode laser photocoagulation without drug discontinuation.

A timeless biology

Contrary to claims that physics is timeless while biology is time-dependent, we take the opposite standpoint: physical systems' dynamics are constrained by the arrow of time, while living assemblies are time-independent. Indeed, the concepts of "constraints" and "displacements" shed new light on the role of continuous time flow in life evolution, allowing us to sketch a physical gauge theory for biological systems in long timescales. In the very short timescales of biological systems' individual lives, time looks like "frozen" and "fixed", so that the second law of thermodynamics is momentarily wrecked. The global symmetries (standing for biological constrained trajectories, i.e. the energetic gradient flows dictated by the second law of thermodynamics in long timescales) are broken by local "displacements" where time is held constant, i.e., modifications occurring in living systems. Such displacements stand for brief local forces, able to temporarily "break" the cosmic increase in entropy. The force able to restore the symmetries (called "gauge field") stands for the very long timescales of biological evolution. Therefore, at the very low speeds of life evolution, time is no longer one of the four phase space coordinates of a spacetime Universe: it becomes just a gauge field superimposed to three-dimensional biological systems. We discuss the implications in biology: when assessing living beings, the underrated role of isolated "spatial" modifications needs to be emphasized, living apart the evolutionary role of time.