Case 4

“A little goes a long way”

Allen Honigman, DDS, MS

In this case, a 26 year old female, with a previously unremarkable medical history, presented with a herpetic lesion (cold-sore) on her upper-lip. The events unfolded as follows.

On 2/09/14 the patient reported a prodomal episode and following the course on 2/10/14 she presented with the now manifest lesion on her upper lip. The area was treated with biostimulation, utilizing the Periolase MVP-7 in a non-contact mode. The laser was set for extra-oral bisotimulation at 100ms/6W and 20Hz. The total amount of energy utilized was 1000J on both the day of treatment and the following day. It is important to note that no other energy was placed into the site after the second visit. For those that are newer to these procedures it may seem that “not much is happening”, when in reality, the appropriate amount of energy accomplishes very much, even on a cellular level. Proof in point, the healing began instantly and by day 2 the appearance of a “scab” was evident. The size remained the same, did not increase as would be the case normally and the patient was very happy with the results.

*Editor’s note /NL

These lesions, anecdotally, do not reoccur in the same space and even if already broken through the surface, the biostimulation reduces if not eliminates the pain. In the normal course of events, these lesions can take up to 14 days to resolve. This healed in half the time.