Mariko Ito
Intermediate Composition
Professor Brenda Refaei
April 14, 2014
Low-Level Laser Therapy
Many dogs and cats come into a veterinary clinic for laser therapy treatments, whether it
is for chronic pain like arthritis, inflammation like gingivitis, or post-surgical after a neuter or
spay so the incision area heal faster. Patients have shown significant results after they have been
treated with laser therapy, but how effective is the treatment? What is treatable and what is not? I
have collected eight scholarly articles explaining the procedure of the experiment and what the
authors have found as a result. Laser therapy is a painless use of laser energy to generate a
photochemical response in damage or dysfunctional tissue. Laser therapy can alleviate pain,
reduce inflammation, and accelerate recovery from a wide range of acute and chronic conditions.
As rehabilitation specialists know, the main goal of treatment for many painful, debilitation
conditions is to facilitate improved function and mobility. Laser therapy is a drug-free, surgeryfree technique to help make that goal a reality [6]. Even though not all diseases are treatable,
laser therapy after surgery is very effective on animals because animal’s surgical area heals faster
and animal’s surgical area has less inflammation.
I want to start off by talking about the eight scholarly articles that I read about low-level
laser therapy (LLLT). The authors in the articles have done some few experiments based on the
topic that they were curious about. For an example, one of the articles based their experiment on
post-surgical healing of full thickness wounds. Sixteen rabbits were selected for this experiment.
After their surgery, the rabbits were exposed to the laser. The treatment continued for 14 days
and the researchers kept a data for each day and recorded the results. After the third day of
treatment, less inflammation was observed. In conclusion, researchers have found that using
LLLT can accelerate full thickness would healing [8]. Other experiments conducted in the
articles include “Evaluation of mitochondrial respiratory chain activity in wound healing by lowlevel laser therapy”, “Bone marrow aspirate combined with LLLT: A new therapeutic approach
to enhance bone healing”, “LLLT for repairing acute and chronic-phase bone lesions”, and one
research/article grabbed my attention the most, which was “Assessment of the systemic effects of
low-level laser therapy on thyroid hormone function in a rabbit model”. This article grabbed my
attention because comparing all of the other articles that I have chosen there were no comparison
that I could find from the thyroid hormone function article from the seven other articles. The
other seven articles had some similarities, which includes bone lesion repairs, acute and chronic
pain, reducing inflammation, post-surgical, etc.
The thyroid hormone function article focuses more on the chemical function of the body
as for the other articles it focuses on the physical part of the body like bones, skins, and joints.
The thyroid hormone has an important function in the body and that is to convert food into
energy and heat. It also regulates your body temperature [7]. In the article “Assessment of the
Systemic Effects of Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) on Thyroid Hormone Function in a
Rabbit Model”, researchers randomly selected sixteen male rabbits. The rabbits were then
distributed into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. The rabbits in the
experimental group were exposed to the laser radiation after the socket on the thyroid gland was
extracted. For 13 thirteen days the experimental group was treated with laser radiation every 48
hours, while the control group did not receive any laser treatment therapy. The animals were
observed for 15 days and on the last day of observation researchers measured the experimental
group and the control groups’ serum triiodothyronine and thyroxine levels. (T4 and T3) As a
result, the thyroid hormone function levels had no significant differences between the groups in
pre- and post-irradiation triiodothyronine and thyroxine values. With the irradiation protocol
used in this study, LLLT did not affect thyroid function in rabbits as assessed by circulating
serum triiodothyronine and thyroxine levels [8]. Sad to say, there are some diseases that are not
treatable when using the LLLT, for an example the thyroid gland. But as I stated in the first
paragraph low-level laser therapy is very effective on other diseases, which I will explain next.
Low-level laser therapy effectively treats pain associated with arthritis. Arthritis is a
painful inflammation and stiffness of the joints. This can happen on an animal’s spine, legs,
wrists, and many more places. Tendonitis is also another disease that is treatable with LLLT and
this is an inflammation in the tendons. Wounds are treatable with LLLT. If an animal were to get
any laceration from an animal fight or someone injured itself, the doctor can stitch up the
wounded area and using LLLT can reduce any inflammation and swelling. Post-surgical swelling
from a neuter/spay in an animal is treated with LLLT. Inflamed ears from an infection can be
treated. Lick granuloma is a lesion that started as a tiny sore spot on the skin and the dog kept on
licking and chewing so it irritated the skin, which turned into an infection and became inflamed.
But that is also treatable with a LLLT [3]. Hip dysplasia is an abnormal formation of the hip
socket that can eventually cause crippling and lameness and painful arthritis of the joints [4].
With a few laser treatments, the arthritic pain in the hips can be treated. Another major disease
that is treatable with LLLT is gingivitis. Gingivitis is when the gums becomes inflamed and
infected with bacteria. Sinusitis is when the sinus becomes inflamed. This most likely started
from an upper respiratory infection and eventually the sinus became inflamed due to the
infection [2]. LLLT can treat this disease with a couple sessions of treatments. It’s great that we
have technologies out in the world that we are able to treat animals with so we aren’t drowning
their bodies with different kinds of medications and drugs all the time. There are a few diseases
that LLLT cannot treat, but researchers are experimenting every day to find a way to treat a
disease with less medication and more laser therapy.
Because LLLT effectively treats pain that I have explained above, there are a few
benefits of LLLT that most clients aren’t aware of. Some of the diseases that I described before
involve lots of inflammation. LLLT has an anti-inflammatory effect on animals. Another benefit
is it has analgesic effect, which means it relieves pain without blocking nerve impulse
conduction or markedly altering sensory function [1]. LLLT also accelerates tissue repair and
cell growth, improves vascular activity, increase metabolic activity, improves nerve function,
and faster wound healing. Other benefits include stimulation of trigger points and acupuncture
points. It also reduces fibrous tissue formation. The last interesting benefit about LLLT is that it
is immunoregulation [2]. This means that it controls specific immune response and interactions
between the B and T lymphocytes and macrophages [5].
Reading the scholarly articles has taught me a lot about low-level laser therapy and the
amazing work that it can do on animals. If it wasn’t for new technologies and the experts
working on new cases on how to treat animals with these different kinds of diseases, the world
would depend on medication 24/7 rather than doing laser therapy treatments, which are drug free
and a lot safer on animals. Even though low-level laser therapy has only been around for less
than 30 years it has become very popular and it is available at most veterinary clinics and
emergency hospitals. Researchers are working every day to find a treatment for the diseases that
are still not treatable with laser therapy. I hope that one day all the diseases are able to be treated
with low-level laser therapy.
References
1. "Analgesic." Vocabulary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
2. “Benefits of MLS Laser Therapy.” Veterinary Laser Therapy Benefits. N.p., n.d. Web 13
Apr. 2014.
3. Dunn, T.J., Jr. “Acral Lick Granuloma: A Dermatology Nightmare.” Pet Health &
Information & Questions. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
4. “Hips Dysplasia (canine).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Aug. 2013. Web. 13
Apr. 2014.
5. “Immunoregulatin.” TheFreeDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
6. "Laser Therapy." Companion Therapy Laser Therapy Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr.
2014
7. Phillips, Jennifer A. “Thyroid Hormone Disorders.” Thyroid Hormone Disorders N.p.,
May 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
8. Younes, Alipanah, Asnaashari Mohammad, and Anbari Fahimeh. "The Effect of Low
Level Laser (GaAIAs) Therapy on the Post-surgical Healing of Full Thickness
Wounds in Rabbits." Medical Laser Application 26.3 (2011): 133-38. Web. 11
Apr. 2014.
<http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/science/article/pii/S161516
1511000317>.