Clinical therapeutic effects of probiotics in combination with antibiotics on periodontitis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Dental pain can have a detrimental effect on quality of life. Symptomatic apical periodontitis is the most common cause of dental pain and arise from an inflamed or necrotic dental pulp. There is growing evidence to support the effectiveness of probiotics in combination with antibiotics on periodontitis. We therefor will conduct this study to evaluate the clinical therapeutic effects of probiotics in combination with antibiotics on periodontitis. METHODS: We will systematically search the following databases: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM), and WanFang database. A grey literature search will be conducted using ZETOC Conference Proceedings and Open Grey. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to research on probiotics in combination with antibiotics to treatment patients with periodontitis will be included. All sources have to be searched from their inception to October 2020. Two authors will independently select studies, extract study data, and evaluate the quality of the included studies. We will use Review Manager Software (RevMan 5.3) to analyze data. RESULTS: This study will systematically evaluate the clinical therapeutic effects of probiotics in combination with antibiotics on periodontitis. CONCLUSIONS: This study will generate evidence for a better clinical decision of patients with periodontitis. REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/QZ6SB (https://osf.io/qz6sb/).