Colour clinical examination (visual shade categorization: yellow, light brown, dark brown, black) vs Hardness clinical examination (tactile texture categorization: soft, medium/leathery, hard): Discriminant power for caries severity: effect size (f) for microbial load (log10 CFU) between lesion categories
- Population
- Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults)
- Intervention
- Colour clinical examination (visual shade categorization: yellow, light brown, dark brown, black)
- Comparison
- Hardness clinical examination (tactile texture categorization: soft, medium/leathery, hard)
- Outcome
- Discriminant power for caries severity: effect size (f) for microbial load (log10 CFU) between lesion categories
The weighted effect size favoured hardness (f=2.62) over colour (f=0.46) for discriminating microbial load, supporting hardness as the more reliable examination (ungraded).
What each review found
Include earlier review versions| Finding | Effect | Studies | GRADE certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
Colour clinical examination (visual shade categorization: yellow, light brown, dark brown, black) vs Hardness clinical examination (tactile texture categorization: soft, medium/leathery, hard) Discriminant power for caries severity: effect size (f) for microbial load (log10 CFU) between lesion categories · Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) The weighted effect size favoured hardness (f=2.62) over colour (f=0.46) for discriminating microbial load, supporting hardness as the more reliable examination (ungraded). Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic… (2019) All outcomes | Effect size (f) colour f=0.46; hardness f=2.62 | 5 studies | GRADE not reported |
Findings are shown side by side, never pooled across reviews.
The reviews
| Review | Searched up to | Included studies | AMSTAR 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. 2019 All outcomes | 1 April 2018 | 8 | Not applicable |
Studies behind the findings
The primary studies the full-text reviews tie to this outcome. Reviews with headline outcomes only do not list them here.
- Mutans streptococci and lactobacilli in carious dentine before and after Atraumatic Restorative Treatment. · 2003 · included by 1 of these review
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.