Research Article Biopsy of Different Oral Soft Tissues Lesions by KTP and Diode Laser: Histological Evaluation Umberto Romeo, 1 Claudia Russo, 1 Gaspare Palaia, 1 Rossella Lo Giudice, 1 Alessandro Del Vecchio, 1 Paolo Visca, 2 Guido Migliau, 1 and Alberto De Biase 1 1 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Via Caserta 6, 00161 Rome, Italy 2 Department of Cytology and Cellular Diagnostics, Regina Elena Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144 Rome, Italy Correspondence should be addressed to Gaspare Palaia; gaspare.palaia@uniroma1.it Received 29 July 2014; Accepted 9 September 2014; Published 27 October 2014 Academic Editor: Samir Nammour Copyright © 2014 Umberto Romeo et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. Oral biopsy aims to obtain clear and safe diagnosis; it can be performed by scalpel or laser. Te controversy in this latter application is the thermal alteration due to tissue heating. Te aim of this study is the histological evaluation of margins of “in vivo” biopsies collected by diode and KTP lasers. Material and Methods. 17 oral benign lesions biopsies were made by diode 808 nm (SOL, DenMatItalia, Italy) and KTP 532 nm (SmartLite, DEKA, Italy). Samples were observed at OM LEICA DM 2000; margin alterations were evaluated through Leica Application Suite 3.4. Results. Epithelial and connective damages were assessed for each pathology with an average of 0.245 mm and a standard deviation of ±0.162 mm in mucoceles, 0.382 mm ± 0.149 mm in fbromas, 0.336 mm ± 0.106 mm in hyperkeratosis, 0.473 mm ± 0.105 mm in squamous hyperplasia, 0.182 mm in giant cell granuloma, and 0.149 mm in melanotic macula. Discussion. Te histologic aspect of lesions infuenced the response to laser, whereas the greater infammation and cellularity were linked with the higher thermal signs. Many artifacts were also associated to histologic procedures. Conclusion. Both tested lasers permitted sure histologic diagnosis. However, it is suggested to enlarge biopsies of about 0.5 mm, to avoid thermal alterations, especially in infammatory lesions like oral lichen planus. 1. Introduction A biopsy is a diagnostic procedure which consists in taking a tissue fragment to subject it to a histological examination and, therefore, to obtain a diagnosis of certainty that can or cannot confrm the suspicion clinical diagnostic [1]. Biopsies can be classifed according to the used material, the clinician timing, the lesion site, and the used technique that can be distinguished in incisional and excisional biopsies. Te incisional biopsy involves the removal of a representative portion of the lesion and a portion of healthy tissue adjacent to it [2–4]; while the excisional biopsy consists in the removal of the whole lesion allowing, at the same time, carrying out both a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure [4, 5]. Te biopsy is generally indicated for the following: (i) recognizing neoplastic, preneoplastic, and other sof tissue diseases; (ii) identifying the origin of ulcers that do not heal within two weeks; (iii) defning the nature of lesions that do not regress afer therapy; (iv) removing lesions of the right dimensions and verify- ing their nature. Nowadays it is possible to perform oral biopsies using two diferent tools, the scalpel and the laser. Te scalpel allows obtaining a tissue fragment character- ized by the presence of well-defned peri-incisional margins with no structural alterations. However, this surgery always requires anesthesia and sutures, and the operative feld is not bloodless. Te laser devices most commonly used in oral sof tissues surgery are the diode (600–980 nm), the potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP, 532nm), the carbon dioxide laser (CO 2 , 10600 nm), the neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum Hindawi Publishing Corporation e Scientific World Journal Volume 2014, Article ID 761704, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/761704