Revista e Stomatologëve të Kosovës

The complete elimination of microorganisms from the root canal is difficult due to the complex anatomy of the canal, the microbial invasion of the dentinal tubules, and the for- mation of the intracanal biofilm, which gives rise to contin- uous apical periodontitis. The use of lasers in the treatment of caries complications has led to the improvement of various endodontic diagnoses. The aim is to provide clin- ical-radiological data on increasing the effectiveness and quality of endodontic treatment, using a diode laser with a wavelength of 980 nm and a laser power of 0.8–1.0 W in the radicular canals, in the treatment of chronic apical periodontitis. Materials and methods: Eighty-four patients aged between 20 and 70 years were treated, with a total number of teeth of 91; of these, 64 were mono radicular and 27 multi radicular. We divided the patients into two groups; where the first group was the control one, with 40 patients in which 30 single-root teeth and 11 multi- root teeth were selected and treated with the traditional method by performing chemical-mechanical processes. The second group, which was the study one, treated 44 patients from which 36 single-root teeth with chronic peri- odontitis with periapical destruction and 14 multi-root teeth were selected; in this group, in addition to the chemical-mechanical processes, was also applied the diode laser with a wavelength of 980 nm. The cases were observed clinically and radiologically in dynamics for a period of time ranging from 6 to 12 months. Results: We highlighted that the number of complications in chronic apical periodontitis was reduced to a large per- centage in the diode laser group (study group), which achieved 96 % success after 12 months and 4 % failure. As for the control group, there were many complications in the first 6 months and after 12 months, where the final result was 78.1% success, while complications were 21.9%. Conclusions: The quality of root canal treatment with the traditional endodontic treatment protocol has not been sufficient to achieve a clinical effect for a long time. Modification of this protocol by diode laser processing showed high-quality sterilization of canals and rapid reduction of de- structive focus by stimulating osteogenesis.