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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

3,323 questions · 5,762 findings · 263 reviews · Dental caries

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No studies found 321 · 5.6%GRADE not reported 4,450 · 77.2%Very low 455 · 7.9%Low 297 · 5.2%Moderate 200 · 3.5%High 39 · 0.7%

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Selective carious tissue removal (selective excavation, SE) vs Non-selective or complete carious tissue removal

Pulp exposure during caries removal · Children (3-11 years) with symptomless, vital dentine caries in primary molars

Partial caries removal reduced the reported risk of pulp exposure versus complete caries removal in primary teeth (RR 0.24; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Comprehensive oral health intervention (oral health education plus additional support: motivational interviewing, toothbrush/toothpaste provision, community engagement, and/or fluoride varnish/sealant application) delivered by non-dental health workers vs control (no intervention/usual care/isotonic exercise)

Caries experience at the surface level (dmfs/defs) · Children (mean age newborn to ~5.2 years) and their parents/carers

Comprehensive interventions produced a small, statistically significant reduction in surface-level caries (dmfs SMD -0.14, 95% CI -0.26 to -0.02; 10 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Composite resin with a beveled cavity margin vs Composite resin with no bevel (butt-joint margin)

Treatment failure (annual failure rate) · Children with Class-I carious lesions in primary molars, no pulp therapy

A beveled margin lowered composite resin failure (1.8% vs 3.5% annual failure) in one RCT; low quality of evidence (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Food marketing exposure or greater marketing power vs No, less, or less powerful food marketing

Food purchasing · Children and adolescents (general population, aged under 20 years)

Across five studies, 40% showed any association of potential public health harm for food purchasing (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Common genetic variants genome-wide (GWAS; ~3.9 million SNPs with MAF > 5%) vs ECC-unaffected children (per-allele case-control association)

Early childhood caries (ECC) - association at lead SNP rs563135 (10:115067899; nearest gene(s) TCF7L2, CASP7) · Children up to age 5-6 years (European / European non-Hispanic ancestry); 843 ECC-affected vs 2124 unaffected across 5 cohorts (N=2974)

The common variant rs563135 near TCF7L2, CASP7 showed suggestive (not genome-wide significant) association with ECC (Z = -4.532, p = 5.86e-6); genetic association, ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Responsive complementary feeding (RCF) vs Other models of complementary feeding (traditional/non-responsive CF)

Physical growth / weight gain · Healthy, term-born, normal-birth-weight infants aged 4-24 months (breastfed and/or formula-fed) in Western industrialized countries

Two RCTs suggest responsive complementary feeding leads to better weight gain in the first two years, though effects were small and not always sustained (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Conventional GIC vs Compomer and glass carbomer

Restoration failure · Children with carious primary teeth

No comparative effect estimate was reported; cumulative failure was highest for glass carbomer.

1 finding from 1 review

Gum chewing (sugar-free) vs No chewing gum

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

Enamel caries quantification (DeS/DeT within total D(M)FS/D(M)FT) vs None (descriptive prevalence review; subgroup analyses by urban/rural status, country and year)

Enamel caries proportion · European adolescents aged 12–19 years

Enamel caries made up about half of total caries experience (pooled proportion 0.50, 95% CI 0.39 to 0.65; 7 studies; higher in 12–15 than 16–19-year-olds; not GRADE-rated).

3 findings from 1 review

Atraumatic restorative treatment vs Silver diamine fluoride

Oral health-related quality of life · Children with dental caries

The network estimate found no statistically significant difference in oral health-related quality of life between atraumatic restorative treatment and silver diamine fluoride.

2 findings from 1 review

Maternal education attainment vs Children without dental caries

Dental caries (association with primary maternal education) · Children (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

Primary maternal education was associated with 25% higher odds of dental caries (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.54; 7 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Daily fluoride intake from toothpaste vs Child age (across age groups)

Association between age and daily fluoride intake from toothpaste · Children using fluoride toothpaste (all tap-water fluoride categories)

There was no correlation between daily fluoride intake from toothpaste and the age of children (all R2 < 0.14), across all tap-water fluoride categories (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review
  • Fluoride Intake Through Dental Care Products: A Systematic Review. 2022 All outcomes
    Multiple countries (28 studies; ~43% conducted in Brazil); community/general-population settings · All tap-water fluoride categories; Levy et al. [20,22,24] data excluded
    R2 (coefficient of determination) <0.14
    Studies not reported
    GRADE not reported

High-viscosity GIC atraumatic restorative treatment vs Conventional restoration

Restoration survival · Children with occlusoproximal caries in primary teeth

Multiple reviews reported similar restoration survival for ART versus conventional restorations in occlusoproximal cavities (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review