Abstract: The basic principle of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is to produce singlet oxygen and other cytotoxic substance through the interaction of visible light of a specific wavelength with the photosensitizer, to kill the targeted bacteria/cell. Because of the limitations of mechanical debridement, aPDT has been applied clinically as a novel adjunctive therapy. Although existing single studies demonstrated improvement of peri-implant parameters in a short term, and has shown potential application prospects, especially in smoking and diabetes patients; high-level evidence (guideline consensus, systematic reviews, etc.) did not recommend aPDT as a routine therapy for peri-implant diseases. Future research should focus on standardizing the procedures of aPDT in order to establish high-quality clinical evidence to verify its long-term efficacy.

Key words: Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, Photosensitizer, Mechanical debridement, Peri-implant disease, Peri-implantitis