Use of acupuncture in controlling gag reflex in completely edentulous patients: A systematic review Kalambettu Aravind1,*, Nagaraj E2,**, Abraham Abby3,***, Ganapathy Dhanraj M4,****, Kondody Rony T5,***** 1Department of Prosthodontics, SRM Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai 2Department of Prosthodontics, PMNM Dental College and Hospitals, Bagalkot 3Department of Prosthodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai 4Department of Prosthodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai 5Department of Orthodontics at Sri Rajiv Gandhi College of Dental Sciences, Bangalore *Corresponding Author E-mail: aravindbhat29@gmail.com
**dr_nagaraj_e@yahoo.co.in
***drabbyabraham@gmail.com
****dhanrajmganapathy@yahoo.co.in
*****ronykondody55@gmail.com
Online Published on 13 October, 2023. Abstract A systematic search on the use of acupuncture in controlling gag reflex in completely edentulous patients was done on the PubMed databases. A hand search was also performed in the Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies, American Journal of Acupuncture from Jan 1965 to August 2019. The articles acquired from the above-mentioned databases were manually analyzed according to the pre-set inclusion and exclusion criteria independently. From the search results, four studies fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were included in this review. There was a significant risk of bias and factual errors in the included studies. There was significant heterogeneity among the included studies and so a meta-analysis could not be done. Although the results showed a Cochrane review on gag reflex for patients undergoing dental treatment, it included very few completely edentulous patients. From the analysis of the articles included in this review, it was noted that there is insufficient evidence to recommend the use of acupuncture to control the gag reflex in completely edentulous patients. From the study, it could be concluded that completely edentulous geriatric patients, invariably present co-morbidity factors which would influence any medical or dental intervention. Considerable variation was observed in the protocols of the studies included in this review and the outcome measures. Further research is required to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture in controlling gag reflex in completely edentulous patients. Top Keywords Acupuncture, Completely edentulous, Gag reflex, Systematic review. Top |