Natural remedies versus topical steroids for the treatment of oral lichen planus: A systematic review

Objectives: Oral lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory disease that has no definite profound treatment. In attempts to find safe treatment options, multiple studies have tested different natural ingredients. This review aims to assess the safety and efficacy of natural remedies in managing oral lichen planus. Methods: Randomized controlled trials were included that compared any natural remedy with topical steroid in patients diagnosed clinically and histopathologically with oral lichen planus. All the review steps were performed in duplicates with the help of Mendeley and RevMan 5.3 softwares. Results: The search results started with 1461 records, that reached 14 records after exclusion steps. Two of the included results were ongoing studies. The included 12 randomized trials tested 10 different remedies: Aloevera, Tripterygium, Quercetin, Licorice, multi-vitamins, Vitamin A, Glucosamine, Curcumin, honey and Hyaluronic acid. However meta-analysis was not possible due to differences between studies testing the same intervention regarding dosage and composition of intervention and control. Conclusion: There is insufficient evidence to support the superiority of any of the included treatments. More methodologically sound studies should be performed to test the efficacy of oral Glucosamine, multi-vitamins with selenium or Tripterygium as adjunctive treatments to topical steroids for treating oral lichen planus.