Guidelines for the Biopsy of Oral Mucosal Lesions Using a Laser

Dental lasers are increasingly being used to harvest soft-tissue biopsies. Lasers generally offer numerous benefits compared with conventional treatment modalities of tissue collection, including providing less trauma, uncomplicated healing, and faster recovery. Also, common problems seen with other novel methods of sample collection are avoided with the use of dental lasers. However, because of a laser's thermal effects, incisional margins may not always be as sufficiently defined as necessary for histopathologic analysis. Deficiencies associated with the use of a dental laser to collect a proper sample are related mostly to either insufficient tissue for diagnosis or other tissue artifacts, specifically thermal artifacts. This article, therefore, is aimed at assisting clinicians in enhancing biopsy technique when using a laser.