Are anti‐inflammatory agents effective in treating gingivitis as solo or adjunct therapies? A systematic review

Objective Systematically review the scientific evidence for efficiency of anti‐inflammatory agents against gingivitis, either as solo treatments or adjunctive therapies. Methods A protocol was developed aimed to answer the following focused question: “Are anti‐inflammatory agents effective in treating gingivitis as solo or adjunct therapies?” RCT s and cohort studies on anti‐inflammatory agents against gingivitis studies were searched electronically. Screening, data extraction and quality assessment were conducted. The primary outcome measures were indices of gingival inflammation. A sub‐analysis was performed dividing the active agents into anti‐inflammatory and other drugs. Results The search identified 3188 studies, of which 14 RCT s met the inclusion criteria. The use of anti‐inflammatory or other agents, in general showed a higher reduction in the test than in the control in terms of gingival indexes and bleeding scores. Only two RCT s on inflammatory drugs could be meta‐analysed, showing a statistically significant reduction in the GI in the experimental group [ WMD  = −0.090; 95% CI (−0.105; −0.074); p  = 0.000]. However, the contribution of both studies to the global result was unbalanced (% weight: 99.88 and 0.12 respectively). Conclusions Most of the tested material showed beneficial effect as anti‐inflammatory agents against gingivitis, either as a single treatment modality or as an adjunctive therapy.