Plaque index (PI) / oral hygiene · People undergoing orthodontic treatment (any age; 9 to 34 years in included studies)
Chlorhexidine mouthwash reduced Plaque Index versus placebo, but certainty is very low.
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP)
Plaque index does not differ significantly between unilateral and bilateral cleft lip and palate (MD -0.13, 95% CI -0.38 to 0.12; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Individuals assessed for periodontal health (mainly children and adolescents, age >2 years)
Persons with orofacial cleft have a higher plaque index than healthy controls (MD 0.29, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.34; low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Adults undergoing orthodontic treatment
Aligners may reduce plaque index compared with fixed appliances in adults at 6-12 weeks (MD -0.58, 95% CI -0.82 to -0.34; very low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Adolescents/teenagers undergoing orthodontic treatment
A single study reported lower plaque index with aligners versus fixed appliances in adolescents at 18 months (MD -0.40, 95% CI -0.77 to -0.03; ungraded).
2 findings from 1 review
Plaque · Adults (18 years or older) needing replacement of one premolar or incisor with a cantilevered fixed dental prosthesis
Metal-free cantilevered FDPs (feldspathic-veneered zirconia) showed no clear difference in plaque index (PI) compared with metal-ceramic cantilevered FDPs; GRADE not reported.
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · People undergoing orthodontic treatment (any age; 9 to 34 years in included studies)
Herbal mouthwash reduced some plaque-related indices versus placebo, with low-certainty evidence.
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Orthodontic patients (any age) undergoing orthodontic treatment (mostly fixed appliances)
CPC mouthwash may reduce plaque-related indexes versus blank control in the short term, but the evidence is very uncertain (very low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · People undergoing orthodontic treatment (any age; 9 to 34 years in included studies)
Long-term fluoride mouthwash showed mixed plaque-index effects, with very low-certainty evidence.
2 findings from 1 review
PI was similar to blank control [37]; API was slightly reduced compared to blank control and significant at 6 and 9 months [59].
2 studies
Very low
TI was significantly reduced compared to baseline [34]; PI was significantly reduced compared to baseline but similar to blank control [46].
2 studies
Very low
Plaque · People undergoing orthodontic treatment (any age; 9 to 34 years in included studies)
Herbal mouthwash reduced several plaque-related indices, but certainty is very low.
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque index (PI) / oral hygiene · Children and/or adolescents (<18 years) without background systemic disease
In a subgroup analysis, milk-based probiotics reduced the bacterial plaque index more than other presentations (MD -0.10, 95%CI -0.20 to -0.00; p-interaction=0.01); not GRADE-rated.
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque index (PI) / oral hygiene · Children and/or adolescents (<18 years) without background systemic disease
Probiotics may make little to no difference to the bacterial plaque index versus control (MD 0.21, 95%CI -0.55 to 0.96; very low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Reduced dental plaque index · Adults with dental caries
Postbiotic lozenges reduce plaque index in one adult RCT (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque index (PI) / oral hygiene · school‐age children and adolescents
Theory-based interventions significantly reduced dental plaque (SMD -1.92; moderate certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Orthodontic patients undergoing comprehensive treatment (late mixed or permanent dentition, no active caries)
In randomized trials, clear aligners probably reduce plaque accumulation versus fixed appliances, though the subgroup estimate is imprecise and its CI crosses no effect (SMD -1.79, 95% CI -3.63 to 0.04; moderate certainty).
6 findings from 1 review
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Plaque · Orthodontic patients (any age) undergoing orthodontic treatment (mostly fixed appliances)
Chlorhexidine mouthwash may reduce the Plaque Index versus blank control in the short term (WMD -0.70, 95% CI -1.12 to -0.27), but the evidence is very uncertain (very low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque index (PI) / oral hygiene · Adult e-cigarette (ENDS) users (general oral health; predominantly natural dentition)
E-cigarette users tend to have a higher plaque index (more biofilm accumulation) than non-smokers (narrative synthesis of systematic reviews; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Narrative synthesis: e-cigarette users exhibited a higher plaque index than non-smokers across included reviews (Shabil, Vamos, Youssef, Thiem, Figueredo, Yang [24,25,27,29,30,31]); the umbrella review reported no…
6 studies
GRADE not reported
Plaque · Patients with anorexia nervosa aged >=12 years (mean age ~18.4; entirely female in reported data), general community-dwelling population
Anorexia nervosa patients tended to have higher plaque accumulation than healthy controls (significant in 2 of 3 studies), but results were not pooled or graded (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Adults and children (predominantly adults; one study in children), with natural dentition
Xylitol sugar-free gum significantly reduced plaque quantity versus no-gum/control (SMD -0.743, 95% CI -1.148 to -0.338), with high heterogeneity (I2 = 86.0%; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Plaque · Adults and children (predominantly adults; one study in children), with natural dentition
Sugar-free chewing gum significantly reduced plaque quantity versus no-gum/control (SMD -0.778, 95% CI -1.167 to -0.390), with high heterogeneity (I2 = 86.6%) and no GRADE rating (ungraded).
2 findings from 1 review