Abstract
Purpose: The present study aims to systematically explore available literature on the current state of stem cell research in dentistry and their impact on the treatment of xerostomia. Material and Methods: A comprehensive electronic search was conducted in PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus databases for human and animal studies published until July 2022. Two independent researchers reviewed the studies based on specific eligibility criteria. Results: After a comprehensive search, 439 articles were selected. Followed by removing unrelated items, 14 studies were selected for systematic review. Finally, 14 studies were included in the current work, of which 6 were human clinical trial studies and 8 were animal studies. The articles were on radiation-induced salivary gland dysfunction, Sjogren syndrome (SS), salivary gland dysfunction, ovariectomy (hypoestrogenic condition), and xerostomia. In all cases, the intervention impression was assessed by the salivary flow rate (SFR) measure, either as a before/after research or compared to a placebo. The first outcome was to investigate the impact of the intervention on SFR. However, we also extracted other related variant variables, e.g., research design, tissue origin of stem cells, disease model, and participants. In addition, we recorded cell tracking information available to evaluate the outcome of the transplanted cells. Data meta-analysis was not applied regarding the heterogeneous nature and the small number of included articles encompassing both human and murine studies. Conclusion: Stem cell therapy can be suggested as an adjunctive clinical method to treat dry mouth caused by radiation-induced xerostomia (RIX) in the neck and head area, Sjogren syndrome (SS), hypoestrogenic conditions, and salivary gland dysfunction.