Effect of Periodontal Therapy on Endothelial Dysfunction – A Systematic Review

Background: Endothelial dysfunction is considered a common precursor to and occurs before cardiovascular events. Therefore, endothelial dysfunction is the first step in atherosclerosis growth that leads to cardiovascular disease CVD. Patients with periodontitis are ideal models for determining how endothelium-dependent vasodilation is affected by inflammation. Objective: The objective is to determine the effect of periodontal therapy on endothelial dysfunction. Methodology: This review was conducted as per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis and JBI guidelines. A total of twelve randomized clinical trials published over a period of the past 14 years were included in the review (200420018). Results: There were 813 patients in the research, which lasted between 2 and 6 months and looked at the effects of periodontal therapy on endothelial dysfunction. The common interventions given for the intervention group in all of the studies were supra or subgingival scaling and root planing with some studies providing antibiotic medications such as amoxicillin and minocycline as an adjuvant for periodontal therapy. All included studies reported a high level of evidence (LOE) of 1c. Conclusion: This study focused on periodontal therapy and its effect on endothelial dysfunction precisely and compared the levels of endothelial function before and after intervention, however, the studies included in this review did not do matching between cases and controls on endothelial function levels. This review revealed that more multi-centric randomized control trials are required in this area of research with proper randomization and adequate sample size and proper matching done between cases and controls.