Traditional Chinese medication for oral submucous fibrosis: A systematic review and network meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of various drug therapy methods for treating oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) in terms of increasing mouth opening, reducing VAS score, decreasing lesion area, minimizing side effects, and determining effective proportion. Method A database search was conducted. Only randomized clinical trials were included, and Cochrane checklist was used for assessing the risk of bias. Stata.17 software was employed and effective treatment ranking was used. Results Thirty‐one RCT studies, with a total of 2986 patients, were included in the period of 2010–2022. The combination of oral Chinese herbal medicine formulas (OC) and intralesional Salvia miltiorrhiza (ISM) was found to be the most effective treatment in improving mouth opening. For reducing the burning pain, the combination of intralesional steroids (IS) and oral Salvia miltiorrhiza (OSM) was found to be more effective than the others. In terms of lesion area, IS combined with OC was more effective than the others. IS combined with ISM had the highest effective proportion while having the lowest incidence of side effects which mentioned the incidence of side effects. Conclusion This study indicates that OC and SM can be employed by clinicians for treating OSF effectively.