The Impacts of Probiotics Supplementation on the Treatment of Periodontitis: An Umbrella Meta-Analysis.

CONTEXT: Probiotics supplementation has many beneficial impacts on periodontitis outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

This umbrella meta-analysis evaluated the effectiveness of probiotics in treating periodontitis, focusing on primary outcome measures, including reductions in probing pocket depth (PPD), clinical attachment level (CAL), bleeding on probing (BOP), plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), and PDD reduction in medium and deep pockets.

DATA SOURCE: The Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar online databases were searched up to January 2024.

DATA EXTRACTION: All meta-analyses evaluating the impact of probiotics supplementation on periodontitis outcomes were considered eligible.

DATA ANALYSIS: A random-effects model was employed to estimate the pooled results. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted. The quality of the studies was evaluated using the AMSTAR2 tool. Overall, 19 meta-analyses with 67 data sets were included in this umbrella review. Our findings indicated that probiotics supplementation significantly decreased BOP (effect size [ES]: -8.20; 95% CI: -15.10 to -1.31; P = .02) and CAL after sensitivity analysis (ES: -0.52; 95% CI: -0.75 to -0.28; P < .05). No other significant effect was observed on PPD, PI, GI, or PDD reduction in medium and deep pockets.

CONCLUSION

This umbrella meta-analysis found that, during their treatment process, probiotics supplementation may positively affect BOP and CAL in people with periodontitis.