RESEARCH ARTICLE Periodontal Treatment for Preventing Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes: A Meta- and Trial Sequential Analysis

Objectives Periodontal treatment might reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes. The efficacy of peri-odontal treatment to prevent preterm birth, low birth weight, and perinatal mortality was eval-uated using meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis. Methods An existing systematic review was updated and meta-analyses performed. Risk of bias, het-erogeneity, and publication bias were evaluated, and meta-regression performed. Sub-group analysis was used to compare different studies with low and high risk of bias and different populations, i.e., risk groups. Trial sequential analysis was used to assess risk of random errors. Results Thirteen randomized clinical trials evaluating 6283 pregnant women were meta-analyzed. Four and nine trials had low and high risk of bias, respectively. Overall, periodontal treat-ment had no significant effect on preterm birth (odds ratio [95 % confidence interval] 0.7