Abstract
Aims: To assay the anti inflammatory effect of systemic treatment with folic acid and relation to oral health indices of patients with chronic gingivitis. Materials and Methods: Forty patients were classified into two groups; Group 1: (n:20) chronic gingivitis patients, did not receive any medication (control group), Group 2: (n:20) chronic gingivitis patients (treatment group), received 1 mg/day oral tablet of folic acid for 42 days. Scaling and polishing have been carried out for each volunteer to reach the base line for gingival index and oral hygiene index. In the next day, these indices were measured for all participants , then measured after 21 days then after 42 days of treatment. At the same visits, five milliliters of unstimulated saliva were collected for measurement of salivary IL-6 and salivary TNF-α by human salivary ELISA kits. Results: There is no significant difference in gingival index and oral hygiene index between treatment and control group. Also there is a significant difference between means of treatment group and control group in salivary TNF-α level, while there is a non significant decrease in IL-6 at 21st and 42nd day. In treatment group there is non significant decrease in means of salivary IL-6 and salivary TNF-α during all the study period. Conclusions: Sub-acute using of systemic folic acid in chronic gingivitis patients improves their gingival health by reducing TNF-α level in their saliva.
