Effectiveness of boric acid as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in the treatment of chronic periodontitis: A Systematic Review.

Brief Background Boric acid suppresses periodontal inflammation and diminishes alveolar bone loss. The objective of the study was to assess the effects of locally delivered 0.75% boric acid as an adjunct to scaling and root planing (SRP) as compared to SRP alone in treatment of subjects with chronic periodontitis. Materials and Methods An electronic search was made in the MEDLINE/PubMed, CENTRAL, EBSCO, Google-Scholar and OpenGrey databases. Studies that reported the efficacy of boric acid in the treatment of chronic periodontitis were selected. The search strategy provided a total of 40 studies. After selection, data was extracted from 4 selected articles. Results 4 studies were selected following independent screening by two reviewers. Due to considerable heterogeneity in the study design, a qualitative data analysis was performed. Randomized controlled trials have indicated significantly higher pocket reductions and clinical attachment gains following a combination of boric acid and SRP in comparison to scaling and root planing alone. Summary and Conclusions The local application of boric acid as an adjunct to SRP may result in significant improvement in periodontal parameters. Due to the highly heterogeneous data and some risk of bias, this data still needs to be interpreted with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]