Permuy Mendaña, MaríaLópez Peña, MónicaGonzález Cantalapiedra, AntonioMuñoz Guzón, Fernando María2017-10-202017-10-202017-04Permuy, M., López-Peña, M., González-Cantalapiedra, A., & Muñoz, F. (2017). Melatonin: A Review of Its Potential Functions and Effects on Dental Diseases. International journal of molecular sciences, 18(4), 865.1422-0067http://hdl.handle.net/10347/15933Melatonin is a hormone synthesised and secreted by the pineal gland and other organs. Its secretion, controlled by an endogenous circadian cycle, has been proven to exert immunological, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects that can be beneficial in the treatment of certain dental diseases. This article is aimed at carrying out a review of the literature published about the use of melatonin in the dental field and summarising its potential effects. In this review article, an extensive search in different databases of scientific journals was performed with the objective of summarising all of the information published on melatonin use in dental diseases, focussing on periodontal diseases and dental implantology. Melatonin released in a natural way into the saliva, or added as an external treatment, may have important implications for dental disorders, such as periodontal disease, as well as in the osseointegration of dental implants, due to its anti-inflammatory and osseoconductive effects. Melatonin has demonstrated to have beneficial effects on dental pathologies, although further research is needed to understand the exact mechanisms of this moleculeeng© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)MelatoninOral cavityImplantsPeriodontal diseasejournal article10.3390/ijms18040865open access