Laser Treatment for Smoking

Concerning the substantially high health risks associated with smoking, the cat has been out of the bag for a long time now, and smokers all over the world have been putting out their cigarettes permanently. Health information, high cancer statistics and laws that ban smoking in public places have transformed smoking into a taboo. Even Paris--the city where smoking has always been accepted, popular and even "tres chic"--placed a ban on smoking in public places as of January 2008. Smokers struggling to quit have a variety of products and treatments to assist the process. Now laser treatment has been added to the pool of options, and, though it's costly, many fresh ex-smokers are enthusiastic about its effectiveness.

Explanation of Laser Treatment

• The type of laser treatment used to address the smoking habit is cold laser therapy, which uses low-intensity levels of laser light. Other common names for this type of therapy are soft laser therapy, laser acupuncture, therapeutic laser, low-level laser therapy (LLLT), biostimulation laser and low power laser therapy (LPLT). Cold laser therapy is used to help moderate cases of pain, wound healing, inflammation, and, as of 2009, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still considers the technology experimental. The cold laser treatment is now used in smoking cessation therapy with an acupuncture-like approach, using lasers instead of needles to target specific body "acupoints" to yield the expected reaction.

How It Works

• Cold laser therapy is considered a treatment of the "alternative" or "new age" category when used for breaking a smoking habit. This is because the low-intensity laser beams are used to manipulate the patient's mental condition and energy, much like acupuncture. A patient's acupoints are the points on the body that allegedly promote particular reactions when stimulated, based on an old principle that is also used in reflexology and shiatsu. The acupoints are considered nerve centers that react with predictable changes when pressure or energy is applied. During this type of laser treatment, the same principle is used. When the lasers hit the target points on the body, the patients are supposed to experience relaxation and then the release of endorphins. The pain-relief function of the laser simulates nicotine effects. Ultimately, the patient is supposed to have a significant reduction in nicotine cravings by way of balancing the body's energy.

Effectiveness

• Cold laser treatment enthusiasts swear by the treatment's effectiveness in curbing patients' addiction to smoking. Media coverage of laser treatment has presented the method as a "breakthrough" in anti-smoking treatments, and providers report success rates of over 80 percent. However, just as there is no scientific evidence to support the absolute effectiveness of acupuncture, there is no scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of laser therapy in smoking cessation. Similar to other products and treatments that promise to enable patients to quit, laser treatment is subjective and cannot guarantee results.

  Also, laser treatment addresses nicotine cravings, but there are other aspects of the addiction that are psychological and behavioral. Treatment might be more effective when used in conjunction with behavioral therapy.

Benefits

• Laser treatment has no side effects and no downtime. Also, sessions are about a half-hour long, and some providers of laser therapy suggest that it should take only one session to yield a nonsmoker. While the cost averages $400 per session, it should be comparable to the costs of nicotine replacement products, such as nicotine gum, which costs around $40 to $50 per package and often requires multiple packages. (It should also be weighed against the cost of continuing the habit.) Laser treatment is also considered a "clean" method of quitting smoking, since the nicotine is not replaced but abandoned.

Misconceptions

• This form of laser treatment should not be confused with conventional types of laser therapy used in the medical field, such as the laser therapy used to treat cancer, or the many laser types used for cosmetic purposes. Neither the technology nor technique is the same. The cold laser technology is so "soft" that it does not legally require a medical professional to administer the procedure.