ObjectivesLiver cirrhosis is a disease with widespread prevalence and high mortality. Oral manifestations, particularly periodontal-related manifestations such as bleeding gums, red and swollen gums, are common in cirrhotic patients but may often be overshadowed by other systemic complications, making them easy to ignore. So this article conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis of periodontal health status in patients with cirrhosis.Material and methodsWe performed electronic searches on the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library. Risk of bias evaluation was carried out according to the Fowkes and Fulton guidelines. Meta-analyses were performed with tests for sensitivity and statistical heterogeneity.ResultsOf the 368 potentially eligible articles, 12 studies were included for qualitative analysis, and 9 contributed to the meta-analysis. In terms of periodontal-related parameters, cirrhotic patients presented a greater mean of clinical attachment loss (CAL) (weighted mean differences [WMD] = 1.078, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.546–1.609,p< 0.001), probing depth (PD) (WMD = 0.796, 95% CI: 0.158 to 1.434,p= 0.015) and alveolar bone loss (ABL) (WMD = 3.465, 95% CI: 2.946–3.984,p< 0.001) than those without, while no statistical difference was found in the papillary bleeding index (PBI) (WMD = 0.166, 95% CI: -0546 to 0.878,p= 0.647) and bleeding on probing (BOP) (WMD = 4.913, 95% CI: -3.099 to 12.926,p= 0.229). The prevalence of periodontitis was higher in cirrhotic patients than in the control group (odds ratio [OR] = 2.630, 95% CI: 1.531–4.520,p< 0.001).ConclusionsThe results indicate that cirrhotic patients have poor periodontal conditions and a higher prevalence of periodontitis. We advocate that they should receive regular oral hygiene and basic periodontal treatment.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-023-03052-5.