Effect of Zinc Supplementation on Salivary MMP-8 Level in Male Wistar Rats with Experimental Periodontitis for a Better Dental Care Nila

Periodontitis is an inflammation process and progressive destruction of periodontal ligament caused by dental plaque pathogens such as Treponema denticola, Tannerella forsythia, and Porphyromonas gingivalis. This pathogen will induce the immune system to produce cytokines and increase the activity of osteoclasts. The advanced progress of gingivitis is also considered to cause this disease. Periodontitis is the 6th most prevalent disease in the world with 11,2% and about 743 million infected individuals. Periodontal disease is considered the main cause of tooth loss in the adult population across the globe, and as such, it affects the person’s nutrition intake, quality of life and self-esteem. Periodontal disease also affects a country's finance as it increases the health service budget due to the high number of patients. Tooth and oral problems prevalence in Indonesia accounts for 26% with periodontal disease ranking 2nd as the most prevalent disease in Indonesia. The high incidence rate on a national and global scale caused by the first stage of periodontal disease progress is due to poor knowledge regarding this disease. Other predisposing factors are genetic, environment, individual (such as smoking, low salivary flow rate,) and social-economic. 36,39,41 Periodontitis decreases oral physiology efficiency and produces uncomfortable feelings while masticating food, tooth loss risk, and difficulty in pronouncing particular words. All of this affects a person’s life quality. An individual suffering from periodontitis has a higher risk of contracting cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infark, and stroke. Expectant women have a higher risk of developing periodontitis, which may suffer from preeclampsia, preterm birth, and low birth weight. 38 Patient history taking and clinical examinations such as gingival inflammation index, periodontal destruction index, calculus, and Abstract Periodontitis is the 6th most prevalent disease in the world with 11,2% prevalence and 743 million individuals infected. MMP-8 is one of the inflammation biomarkers which is the most MMP found in periodontal diseases. Zinc act as MMP-8 inhibitors, which makes it an alternative treatment to inhibits MMP-8. This research aims to analyze the difference between MMP-8 level in healthy rat saliva and experimental periodontitis rat saliva, and also to analyze the difference between MMP-8 level in periodontitis rat saliva with zinc supplementation and in periodontitis rat saliva without zinc supplementation. This research was done with 30 male Wistar rats as a sample divided into 3 different groups i.e. control group, periodontitis without supplementation group, and periodontitis with supplementation group. Every group saliva specimen was collected and MMP-8 level was examined using ELISA method. MMP-8 level was statistically tested using one-way ANOVA. Statistic test showed a significant difference between the group with p<0,05. This research concludes that zinc supplementation is effective in suppressing MMP-8 level in periodontitis. Experimental article (J Int Dent Med Res 2021; 14(3): 977-981)