Elaine Bezerra de Oliveira; Vanessa Beatriz Jales Rego; Beatriz Diniz Duarte; Priscila Leone Inácio; Moisés Willian Aparecido Gonçalves & William Alves de Melo Júnior

Summary

Bell's palsy is defined as a lower motor neuron palsy that develops from a non-suppurative inflammation of the facial nerve at the stylomastoid foramen. The objective of this integrative review was to determine the effects of photobiomodulation as a therapeutic method for Bell's palsy. This qualitative study provided a broader understanding of the subject studied. Searches for articles were carried out in PubMed databases via Medline, LILACS, IBES, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and CENTRAL using MeSH and DeCS descriptors to determine the search terms. A total of 143 articles were found. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 7 articles were included. Therefore, it can be concluded that the application of low-level laser in the treatment of Bell's palsy is effective since the studies indicated significant and relevant improvements for the recovery of these patients when associating the laser with other types of treatments.

KEY WORDS: low-level light therapy, photobiomodulation therapy, Bell´s palsy, therapeutics.

How to cite this article

OLIVEIRA, E. B.; REGO, V. B. J.; DUARTE, B. D.; INÁCIO, P. L.; GONÇALVES, M. W. A. & ALVES DE MELO JÚNIOR, W. Photobiomodulation in the treatment of Bell's Palsy: an integrative review. Int. J. Odontostomat., 17(3):384-391, 2023.