NOMENCLATURE

Cold Laser / LLLT / Photobiomodutation nomenclature is often debated at conferences. “Cold Laser Therapy” seems to be the most common search term (according to Google). In the UK the most common phrase amongst physiotherapists is Laser Therapy though in the 1980’s and 90’s it was Laser Biostimulation. Many US scientists call it Photobiomodulation, it used to be called Laser Biostimulation by the American Society for Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, who last year adopted Photobiomodulation instead. Pubmed have chosen LLLT (stands for Low Level Laser Therapy) as the MeSH term (MeSH stands for Medical Subject Heading), however they lave used that label for almost every form of medical laser treatment (low level or otherwise). The term was coined by Oshiro and Calderhead back on the 1980’s. For the record I am fan of calling it Photobiomodulation and I have managed to get that as the term adopted on Wikipedia a couple of years back (hooray for me).

This exercise was triggered by an article in the Independant newspaper today “Doctors warn of ‘cowboy clinics’ if laser therapy is deregulated“. It is an article about UK government deregulation of IPL for hair removal and is just one tiny example of how the distinctions around medical laser devices are not being made. I wonder if the journalist has any idea that at another end of the scale lasers improve tissue repair, reduce inflammation, reduce pain and some would argue even stimulate hair growth (Mester to name but one example).

Here are some words and phrases I have collected over the years:

Bioregulating Laser
Biostimulating Laser
Broad Band Radiation Therapy
CHELT (Cold air and High Energy Laser Therapy)
Class IV laser Therapy
Cold Laser
Cold Light Laser
Diode Laser Therapy
He-Ne Laser Therapy
Helium-neon laser irradiation
High Energy Laser Therapy
HILT (High Intensity Laser Therapy)
Infrared laser light
Infrared light-emitting diode
Laser Acupuncture
Laser Biostimulation
Laser Blood irradiation
Laser Irradiation
Laser Phototherapy
Laser Therapy
Lazer therapy
LED Photon light therapy
LED phototherapy
LED therapy
LELT (Low Energy Laser Therapy)
LEPT (Low Energy Photon Therapy)
LEPT Low Energy Photon
Light Therapy
Light-emitting diode phototherapy
LILT (Low Intensity Laser Therapy)
LLLT (Low level Laser Therapy)
LLLT (Low Level Light Therapy)
Low Energy Laser Therapy
Low fluence diode laser irradiation
Low level light treatment
Low Light Laser Therapy
Low light therapy
Low Power Laser Irradiation
Low Power Laser Therapy
Low Reactive Level Laser
Low-level infrared radiation
Low-output helium-neon laser
Lower-level laser therapy
Medium-level laser therapy
Mid Laser Therapy
Moderate intensity light
Monochromatic Infra Red Energy
Monochromatic infrared energy
Monochromatic Infrared Photo Energy
Monochromatic Light Therapy
Monochromatic phototherapy
Near-infrared light therapy
NIR laser therapy
Nonablative laser therapy
PBM (Photobiomodulation)
Photo Irradiation
Photobioactivation
Photobiostimulation
Photomedicine
Photon Therapy
Photoradiation
Photostimulation
Phototherapy
Physiotherapy Laser
Polarised Polychromatic Light
Polarised Radiation
Red light phototherapy
Red Light Therapy
Soft Laser Therapy
Therapeutic Laser

It is also quite common for laser wavelength and / or lasing medium to be added to the title. Common examples are “810nm Laser Diode Therapy for XYZ”. In case you are not familiar with the common wavelengths and materials used they are: 660nm 810nm 830nm 904nm

Full list as follows: 632.8 650nm 635nm 660nm 670nm 680nm 750nm 780nm 705nm 908nm 810nm 820nm 830nm 850nm 870nm 880nm 890nm 904nm 905nm 940nm 950nm 970nm 980nm 1064nm

Materials: GaAlAs, Gallium Aluminium Arsenide, GaAs, Gallium Arsenide, HeNe, Helium Neon, AlGaInP, Aluminium Gallium Indium Phosphide, CO2, Nd Yag.