Evaluation of parental perceptions of lingual and labial frenectomy on their child: a comparison of CO 2 laser and conventional scalpel.

To evaluate parental reports of postoperative pain, improvement and satisfaction following frenectomy with scalpel versus carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) laser treatment. Forty-nine patients aged 2-6 years with a short labial or lingual frenulum who required frenectomy were randomly assigned to undergo CO 2 laser or scalpel treatment. They were divided into a labial and a lingual frenulum group based on the severity of attachment. Frenectomy was performed using a scalpel or Pixel CO 2 10,600 nm laser (Alma Lasers Company, Caesarea, Israel). Postoperative follow-up was conducted via a mobile application where pain was evaluated daily using the visual analog scale (VAS) in the first 72 hours, and painkiller use was recorded. Improvement and satisfaction were evaluated at 1-month post-surgery and compared among the groups. Our results showed significant differences between the degree of clinical attachment of the frenulum, one-month postoperative improvement and satisfaction based on VAS scores ( p < 0.001). Although the use of scalpel was associated with lower postoperative pain scores than the CO 2 groups, VAS scores of improvement and satisfaction after 1 month were higher in the CO 2 groups ( p < 0.05). This study showed that although laser was associated with more postoperative pain, it showed greater improvement and higher satisfaction among patients' parents at 1 month post-surgery compared with scalpel.