Antioxidant Effect of Folic Acid and its Relation to Salivary Proteins and Oral Health

Abstract

Aims: To assay the effect of systemic treatment with folic acid on salivary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total protein (TP) in 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 mgday oral tablet of folic acid for 42 days. At the beginning of study, 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 from treatment. At all visits, five milliliters of unstimulated saliva were collected for measurement of salivary TAC and salivary TPby spectrophotometer. Results: the results revealed that there is a significant difference in salivary TAC of treatment group after 6 weeks, no significant difference in salivary TP during study period, no significant difference in gingival index and oral hygiene index between treatment and control group. Conclusions: sub-acute using of systemic folic acid in chronic gingivitis patients improves salivary TAC and decrease salivary TP slightly . Results: the results revealed that there is significant difference in s. TAC of treatment group after 6 weeks, no significant difference in salivary TP during study period, no significant difference in gingival index and oral hygiene index of treatment group Conclusions: sub-acute using of systemic folic acid in chronic gingivitis patients improves salivary TAC and decrease salivary TP slightly .

Keywords

• total antioxidant capacity
• salivary total protein
• folic acid
• oral health.