The Use of Photobiomodulation in the Treatment of Oral Complaints of Long COVID-19.A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a newly emerging zoonotic agent that emerged in December 2019 in China (2019-nCoV) as a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV -2). Long COVID-19, or Post-Covid Syndrome or Long-term COVID-19, is a post-viral syndrome that persists after the acute infection has resolved. The most frequent symptoms of Lonf-term COVID are fatigue and dyspnea. But two classes of symptoms have been received scientific attention: the musculoskeletal pain and oral complaints related to Long COVID, mainly xerostomia and burning mouth. Photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy is often used for oral diseases and presents itself as a non-invasive, low-cost, safe therapy that has benefits in relation to the quality of life of patients with xerostomia. This study aims to investigate the clinical effectiveness of the use of a Photobiomodulation protocol in the treatment xerostomia and oral complaints related to Long-Covid. This will be a single-center, randomized, controlled, blinded clinical trial that will involve patients with Long COVID in follow-up at the Medical and Multiprofessional outpatient clinic of University Nove de Julho (UNINOVE) which remained hospitalized with COVID-19 at Lydia Storópoli Universitarian Hospital during the year 2022 and who were discharged from the inpatient treatment from January to December 2022. All those patients presenting xerostomia, burning mouth or oral complaints related to Long Covid will be randomized into 2 groups: PBM Group (standard rehabilitation treatment for Long COVID and xerostomia + PBM therapy) or PBM placebo group (standard rehabilitation treatment for Long COVID and xerostomia + placebo PBM therapy). PBM consists of the application of Red LED on the 3 pairs of major salivary glands (parotid, submandibular and sublingual) extraorally, transcutaneously, 3 J/cm2, for 36 seconds, twice a week for 06 weeks. Functional and quality of life evaluations will be perform pre and post therapy period.