Flavonoid Intake and Periodontal Healing

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that, if untreated, will lead to tooth loss. To treat periodontal disease, sanative therapy is used as a first line cost-effective strategy to manage periodontal disease and thus prevent tooth loss. Diet is emerging as a modifiable factor that may help an individual to more fully respond to treatments such as sanative therapy. Dietary flavonoids, abundant in fruits and tea, may be particularly beneficial. Patients with moderate to severe chronic generalized periodontitis and undergoing sanative therapy will be recruited for the study. Mean clinical attachment loss as well as other clinical measures will be assessed at baseline and 8 to 12 weeks following sanative therapy to measure periodontal healing. At baseline and follow-up appointment, the following will be assessed to examine associations with clinical measures of periodontal healing: intakes of macronutrients and micronutrients, fruits, vegetables and tea as well as supplement use and salivary markers of inflammation.