Early childhood caries (ECC) vs Caries-free primary dentition: Caries development in permanent teeth
- Population
- School children and adolescents (6-18 years) followed from primary dentition (baseline examination before 72 months of age)
- Intervention
- Early childhood caries (ECC)
- Comparison
- Caries-free primary dentition
- Outcome
- Caries development in permanent teeth
Early childhood caries increases the likelihood of caries in permanent teeth roughly three-fold, but the certainty of evidence is very low (OR 3.22, 95% CI 2.80 to 3.71).
What each review found
Current versions only| Finding | Effect | Studies | GRADE certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
Early childhood caries (caries present in primary dentition) vs No caries in primary dentition (caries-free) Caries development in permanent teeth · School children and adolescents (6-18 years) followed from primary dentition (baseline examination before 72 months of… · At least 24 months follow-up (3-12 years), School/community-based cohort studies (USA, China, Norway) Early childhood caries increases the likelihood of caries in permanent teeth roughly three-fold, but the certainty of evidence is very low (OR 3.22, 95% CI 2.80 to 3.71). Does Early Childhood Caries Increase Caries Development among School Children and Adolescents? A Systematic… (2022) All outcomes | OR 3.22 [2.80, 3.71] | 3 studies · 5080 participants | Very low |
Findings are shown side by side, never pooled across reviews.
The reviews
| Review | Searched up to | Included studies | AMSTAR 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Does Early Childhood Caries Increase Caries Development among School Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2022 All outcomes | Inception to 28 July 2022 (grey literature accessed 14 September 2022) | 10 | 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.
- Do enamel and dentine caries at 5 years of age predict caries development in newly erupted teeth? A prospective longitudinal study · 2020 · included by 1 of these review
- Al-Shalan et al., 1997 · 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.