Expression of wound healing markers in gingival crevicular fluid following root-coverage procedures: A systematic review of randomized clinical trials

Objective

Although several surgical techniques have been developed for treatment of gingival recession (GR), the underlying wound healing process remains relatively unexplored. This systematic review aimed to investigate the expression of wound healing markers in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) before and after surgical treatment of GR.

Design

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) reporting changes in the expression of GCF markers following any root coverage surgical procedure were identified from 4 electronic databases and manual searches followed by data extraction and result synthesis. The risk of bias (RoB) was assessed using Cochrane RoB 2.0 tool. Overall certainty of evidence was summarized using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) tool.

Results

Four RCTs comprising 100 patients and investigating 15 biomarkers were included. Post-surgery, GCF levels of cytokines and inflammatory proteins were raised during the first 2–10 days of healing. MMP-8 levels increased during the first week followed by a gradual decline. RoB was found to be high for all studies and the overall certainty of evidence was very low.

Conclusion

A limited number of studies with large methodological variations precluded reliable conclusions. Well-designed studies powered for GCF markers’ levels that follow a standardized protocol for GCF sampling and processing are needed to draw conclusive evidence.