Postbiotic products (postbiotic toothpaste; heat-killed/postbiotic oral lozenges; inactivated-bacteria tablets) vs Placebo, fluoride toothpaste, or standard post-filling care (varies by trial): Streptococcus mutans count
Postbiotic products reduce salivary S. mutans counts in human trials, though not always significantly (ungraded narrative synthesis).
What each review found
Current versions only| Finding | Effect | Studies | GRADE certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
Postbiotic products (postbiotic toothpaste; heat-killed/postbiotic oral lozenges; inactivated-bacteria tablets) vs Placebo, fluoride toothpaste, or standard post-filling care (varies by trial) Reduced salivary S. mutans counts · Humans at risk of dental caries (children aged 6-12 years; adults with dental caries) · Daily for 14 days to 4 weeks, Clinical; salivary/plaque sampling Postbiotic products reduce salivary S. mutans counts in human trials, though not always significantly (ungraded narrative synthesis). Postbiotics and Dental Caries: A Systematic Review. (2025) All outcomes | Three RCTs reported reduced salivary S. mutans counts after postbiotic intervention; the reduction was statistically significant in Lin 2022 but non-significant in Basir 2022; no pooled estimate. | 3 studies | GRADE not reported |
Findings are shown side by side, never pooled across reviews.
The reviews
| Review | Searched up to | Included studies | AMSTAR 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postbiotics and Dental Caries: A Systematic Review. 2025 All outcomes | October 2024 | 21 | Critically Low / Critically Low |
Studies behind the findings
None of these reviews ties its included studies to this outcome in the data here. Cochrane reviews and reviews with headline outcomes only do not list their studies yet.
How reviews are matched to this question
Reviews word the same question differently. Four decision models (TypeSafe's Jev, Liquid AI's d1-ultra, SubQ Snap and Baseten's Elephant) judged each wording of the population, intervention, comparator and outcome against the others; two wordings count as the same when at least three of them agree and none clearly disagrees, and findings count as this question only when all four elements match. Timing, setting and subgroup never split a question: they are shown on each finding.