Effects of Ziziphus Honey on Bone Healing of the Extracted Tooth Socket by Evaluating Osteopontin Levels.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of Ziziphus honey on the healing of post-extraction alveolar sockets by estimating the levels of osteopontin (OPN) in humans.

Study design: Randomised controlled trial. Place and Duration of the Study: Dental section of the Lahore General Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, from March 2020 to February 2021.

Methodology: A total of 30 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 35 ± 0.28 years. The participants were adults undergoing permanent molar extraction, randomly divided into two groups, a control group and an experimental group. After tooth extractions in both groups, 1ml of Ziziphus honey was administered into the extracted tooth socket of the experimental group while no intervention was done to the control group. Saliva samples were collected on day 0 before tooth extraction and on days 3 and 7 after tooth extractions. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique was used to measure the levels of OPN in the saliva sample. Radiographic evaluation was also done with the help of periapical radiographs using Image J® software. To find out the significance of the outcome in experimental and control groups, an unpaired t-test was applied. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: A total of 30 participants were selected for the study, of which 16 were females and 14 were males. The OPN levels between the control vs. experimental groups were (22.55 ± 2.45 vs. 23.31 ± 2.38; p = 0.4) on day 0, (30.95 ± 2.96 vs. 53.29 ± 4.69; p = 0.001) on day 3, and (55.33 ± 4.52 vs. 81.90 ± 4.49; p = 0.001) on day 7.

Conclusion: Increased salivary levels of the OPN in the experimental group with the use of Ziziphus honey suggests better bone healing as compared to the control group.

Key words: Extraction tooth, Honey, Osteopontin, Ziziphus, Bone healing.