Question · asked by 1 review

Timing of first dental visit vs Reference visit timing: Early childhood caries (ECC)

Population
Children aged 0-5 years in North Africa
Intervention
Timing of first dental visit
Comparison
Reference visit timing
Outcome
Early childhood caries (ECC)

An early first dental visit was associated with much lower odds of ECC (OR 0.042).

What each review found

Current versions only
No studies found 0 · 0%GRADE not reported 2 · 100%Very low 0 · 0%Low 0 · 0%Moderate 0 · 0%High 0 · 0%
FindingEffectStudiesGRADE certainty
Timing of first dental visit vs Reference visit timing
Early childhood caries (ECC) · Children aged 0-5 years in North Africa · Egypt (Kabil 2017), Early visit
An early first dental visit was associated with much lower odds of ECC (OR 0.042).
Prevalence and risk factors for early childhood caries in North Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (2025) All outcomes
OR 0.042 [0.013, 0.136]1 studyGRADE not reported
Timing of first dental visit vs Reference visit timing
Early childhood caries (ECC) · Children aged 0-5 years in North Africa · Egypt (Kabil 2017), Delayed/late visit
A delayed first dental visit was associated with lower odds of ECC (OR 0.248; reported p=0.27).
Prevalence and risk factors for early childhood caries in North Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (2025) All outcomes
OR 0.248 [0.072, 0.852]1 studyGRADE not reported

Findings are shown side by side, never pooled across reviews.

The reviews

ReviewSearched up toIncluded studiesAMSTAR 2
Prevalence and risk factors for early childhood caries in North Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
2025 All outcomes
March 202518Not applicable
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.