Photobiomodulation Interview with NovoTHOR – Laser Therapy Sydney

Posted on 19 March 2019

Dr Hisham Abdalla of the Laser Lifecare Institute and the Novothor Laser Spa interviews Dr Jason Pang of Cosmic Smile Laser Dental and Laser Therapy Sydney about the ‘upcoming’ field of photobiomodulation (PBM). Despite being used for over 30 years in many fields of medicine and veterinary science there still appears to be doubts about its usefulness. Many dental therapies are improved through the use of lasers and light including tooth sensitivity, less post operative pain and swelling, healing of painful ulcers, headaches, neck pain and more.

One condition known as oral mucositis (OM) is a painful, debilitating condition that is a side-effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer treatment. OM presents as large ulcers throughout the mouth that make it painful to eat, talk or carry out daily life. As of May 2018, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), an institution well regarded worldwide, after rigorous review now recommends PBM as an adjunct treatment for OM. In the Royal Children Hospital in Melbourne, it is considered the one the frontline treatments in their guidelines.

Another condition known as Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Dry AMD) has no known treatments but clinical trials have shown improvements in visual acuity at 3 and 6 month reviews. http://www.lumithera.com.

In the USA there is an opioid crisis and in October 2018 there was a Congressional Briefing in which James Carroll, founder of Thor Photomedicine, Annette Quinn, nurse at Shadyside Hospital, Pittsburgh and Praveen Arany, assistant professor in the UB School of Dental Medicine and current president of the World Association of Laser Therapy, spoke before congress about the use of PBM to reduce dependency on opioids. In 2017, 43000 people died from opioid overdoses, more than from car accidents, for the first time in history. This is the second highest cause of preventable death in the US.

The NovoTHOR bed is the whole body application of light for healing. Inflammatory conditions, neuropathic pain, neuromuscular pain and ischemic conditions in particular can benefit. Other conditions that typically have poor outcomes like Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA) and fibromyalgia all report improvements.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for PBM use in mucositis
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ipg615

Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne guidelines where they actively treated OM with PBM
https://www.rch.org.au/rchcpg/hospital_clinical_guideline_index/Mouth_Care_of_the_paediatric_oncology_patient/

UB, Roswell Park zero in on a better treatment for major cancer side effect – The Buffalo News Oral mucositis
https://buffalonews.com/2019/02/01/ub-roswell-park-zero-in-on-a-better-treatment-for-major-cancer-side-effect/

https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Scientists_to_Test_Light_Therapy_as_Relief_from/a64386

Opioid overdoses eclipse car crashes for accidental deaths
https://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=apm&pag=dis&ItemID=324123