This study was undertaken to compare and investigate the wound healing process following Nd:YAG laser wounds and scalpel incisions of the rat tongue dorsal mucosa. Laser wounds were made parallel on the right side of tongue dorsun and scalpel incisions were made on the left side with 5mm length, respectively. Visual inspection and kmunohistochen istry with CD44 antibody after immediately, 6 hours, 1 day, 2, 4, 7, 11, 21 days after surgery were carried out.
The results were as follows
1. There was macroseopically no great difference between laser wounds and scalpel incisions.
2. Laser wounds appeared as dry, bloodless and irregular grooves with carbonization and whitening of superficial tissues compared to sharp, straight and bleeding incisions using scalpel.
3. In the epithelium of rat tongue mucosa, CD44 express on in healing laser wounds and scalpel incisions were similar. 4 In the lamina propria and muscle layer, CD44 expression in healing laser wounds gradually increased earlier and decreased faster than scalpel incisions.
Conclusively, it is suggested that pulsed Nd:YAG laser has more beneficial effect on the healing of wounded oral mucosa than scalpel in view of CD44 expression.
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