A comparative study of toluidine blue-mediated photodynamic therapy versus topical corticosteroids in the treatment of erosive-atrophic oral lichen planus: a randomized clinical controlled trial

Recently, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been suggested as a new treatment option that is free from side effects for erosive-atrophic oral lichen planus (OLP). The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of toluidine blue-mediated photodynamic therapy (TB-PDT) with local corticosteroids on treatment of erosive-atrophic OLP. In this randomized clinical trial, 25 patients with keratotic-atrophic-erosive oral lichen planus were allocated randomly into two groups. Group 1 (experimental): topical application of toluidine blue with micropipette was applied, and after 10 min, the patients were treated with a 630-nm GaAlAs laser (power density: 10 mW/cm2) during two visits. Group 2 (control) used mouthwash diluted with dexamethasone (tab 0/5 in 5 ml water) for 5 min, and then, it was spat out, and after 30 min, the mouth was rinsed with 30 drops of nystatin 100,000 units for 5 min and again spat out. Demographic data, type, and severity of the lesions and pain were recorded before and after treatment and then at the 1-month follow-up visit. Response rate was defined based on changes in intensity of the lesions and pain. In the experimental and control groups, sign scores of changes significantly reduced after treatment respectively (p = 0.021) and (p = 0.002), but between the two groups, no significant difference was observed (p = 0.72). In the experimental (p = 0.005) and control groups (p = 0.001), the intensity of lesions significantly reduced after treatment and there was a significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.001). The mean amount of improvement in pain was significantly greater in the control group compared with the experimental group (p < 0.001) (α = 0.05). Our study showed that TB-PDT with laser was effective in the management of OLP.