Question · asked by 1 review
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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) 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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories
For yellow-vs-other colour compared with soft-vs-harder hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -3.87, 95% CI -4.46 to -2.87; ungraded).
What each review found
Current versions onlyNo studies found 0 · 0%GRADE not reported 6 · 100%Very low 0 · 0%Low 0 · 0%Moderate 0 · 0%High 0 · 0%
| 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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories · Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) · B/DB/LB-Y (colour) vs S-M/H (hardness) For yellow-vs-other colour compared with soft-vs-harder hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -3.87, 95% CI -4.46 to -2.87; ungraded). Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic… (2019) All outcomes | WMD -3.867 [-4.461, -2.874] | 2 studies | GRADE not reported |
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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories · Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) · B/DB/LB-Y (colour) vs S/M-H (hardness) For yellow-vs-other colour compared with soft/medium-vs-hard hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -4.45, 95% CI -5.24 to -3.65; ungraded). Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic… (2019) All outcomes | WMD -4.446 [-5.241, -3.650] | 2 studies | GRADE not reported |
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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories · Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) · B-DB/LB/Y (colour) vs S/M-H (hardness) For black-vs-other colour compared with soft/medium-vs-hard hardness, the pooled difference in discriminant power was not significant (WMD -0.067, 95% CI -1.88 to 1.74; ungraded). Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic… (2019) All outcomes | WMD -0.067 [-1.877, 1.743] | 2 studies | GRADE not reported |
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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories · Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) · B-DB/LB/Y (colour) vs S-M/H (hardness) For black-vs-other colour compared with soft-vs-harder hardness, a single study suggested hardness was the more discriminant test, with no pooled estimate (ungraded). Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic… (2019) All outcomes | Only one study (Beighton et al.) permitted this comparison: the mean log10 CFU difference was 2.32 for the colour contrast (black vs rest) versus 3.72 for the hardness contrast (soft vs medium/hard); hardness appeared… | 1 study | GRADE not reported |
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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories · Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) · B/DB-LB/Y (colour) vs S-M/H (hardness) For dark-vs-light colour compared with soft-vs-harder hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -4.74, 95% CI -4.98 to -4.50; ungraded). Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic… (2019) All outcomes | WMD -4.741 [-4.979, -4.502] | 2 studies | GRADE not reported |
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: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories · Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) · B/DB-LB/Y (colour) vs S/M-H (hardness) For dark-vs-light colour compared with soft/medium-vs-hard hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -3.37, 95% CI -3.60 to -3.14; ungraded). Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic… (2019) All outcomes | WMD -3.369 [-3.595, -3.143] | 2 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.
- Partial caries removal in primary teeth: association of clinical parameters with microbiological status. · 2011 · included by 1 of these review
- A clinical, microbiologic, and radiographic study of deep caries lesions after incomplete caries removal. · 2002 · included by 1 of these review
- A clinical and microbiological study of deep carious lesions during stepwise excavation using long treatment intervals. · 1997 · included by 1 of these review
- A microbiological study of primary root-caries lesions with different treatment needs. · 1993 · 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.