Biomarkers in Periodontal Disease

The current clinical diagnostic criteria were introduced almost a half century ago continue to use as the basic of oral diagnosis in today’s clinical practice. But the disadvantages are they measure disease severity rather than disease activity. Evolvement with time is brought us to the era of biomarkers. Biomarkers are micro molecules that can be used as to measure health status, disease onset, treatment response and outcome. Various biological media like saliva and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) are used to determine biomarkers in periodontal health and disease. Periodontitis being a multifactorial disease; it’s unlikely that a single biomarker will able to predict periodontal disease activity and severity. So combinations of biomarkers are used to predict the disease activity. The present review highlights the need for identification of biomarkers and the various substances used for the identification and difficulties and sensitivity of the biomarker in the diagnosis, progression and treatment outcome of periodontal disease.