Various modalities of treatment are available for different dental diseases, but the major drawback of these conventional drug therapies is the numerous side effects associated with their use. This has led to renewed interest in the discovery of novel anti-infective natural compounds derived from plants. Plants have been the major source of medicine since the time immemorial. Turmeric has been attributed a number of medicinal properties in the traditional system of medicine. The objective of this article is to review the efficacy of turmeric herb in maintenance of oral health, in particular, and overall health, in general. Turmeric, a rhizome of Curcuma longa, is a herb known for its medicinal properties and is a more acceptable and viable option for a common man. It has proven properties like anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, immunostimulant, antiseptic, and antimutagenic. Due to these properties, it is quite useful in dentistry as well. It has a role in the treatment of periodontal diseases and oral cancers. Turmeric can also be used as a pit and fissure sealant, mouth wash, and subgingival irrigant in different preparations. It can also be used as a component in local drug delivery system in gel form.

The treatment of oral and periodontal diseases and associated anomalies accounts for a significant proportion of the healthcare burden, with the manifestations of these conditions being functionally and psychologically debilitating. A challenge faced by periodontal therapy is the predictable regeneration of periodontal tissues lost as a consequence of disease. Growth factors are critical to the development, maturation, maintenance and repair of oral tissues as they establish an extra-cellular environment that is conducive to cell and tissue growth. Tissue engineering principles aim to exploit these properties in the development of biomimetic materials that can provide an appropriate microenvironment for tissue development. The aim of this paper is to review emerging periodontal therapies in the areas of materials science, growth factor biology and cell/gene therapy. Various such materials have been formulated into devices that can be used as vehicles for delivery of cells, growth factors and DNA. Different mechanisms of drug delivery are addressed in the context of novel approaches to reconstruct and engineer oral and tooth supporting structure. Key words: Periodontal disease, gene therapy, regeneration, tissue repair, growth factors, tissue engineering.

The prevalence of dentine hypersensitivity in chronic periodontitis patients was 37.2% according to questionnaire and 47.8% according to the results of clinical test. Periodontal attachment loss could be an earlier indicator or a possible risk factor of DH. Only 14.36% of the patients with sensitive teeth used desensitizing paste. This could be due to the fact that either the patients did not consider the condition bad enough to warrant treatment or it was not being diagnosed.

Background: There is enough evidence, which suggests that nonsurgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) improved the glycemic control in patients of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) with chronic periodontitis (CP). This meta-analysis is aimed to explore the effect of NSPT, exclusively scaling and root planing (SRP) as monotherapy on glycemic control and periodontal parameters in patients of T2DM with CP. Materials and Methods: Two databases, MEDLINE and EMBASE, were searched from June 2006 to June 2016. Initially, 464 potentially relevant studies were evaluated. Randomized controlled trials with duration of ≥3 months, based on the treatment group managed with SRP without any supportive use of local drug delivery or systemic antibiotics, while the control group received no periodontal therapy, were selected. This resulted in six appropriate articles with a total of 812 patients of T2DM with CP. Alteration in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was the primary outcome measure, whereas the changes in clinical attachment level (CAL) and probing pocket depth (PPD) were the secondary outcome measures. Results: SRP treatment resulted in a decrease in HbA1c by 0.26% ( P = 0.17) at 3–4 months compared to the control group. Further, on subgroup analysis, SRP therapy revealed a decrease in PPD and CAL at 3–4 months, though statistically insignificant. Conclusion: SRP treatment leads to modest improvement in glycemic status and periodontal parameters in T2DM patients with CP at 3–4 months.