Findings

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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

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

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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Atraumatic restorative treatment vs Conventional treatment with local anaesthesia

Discomfort associated with the procedure · People with dental caries in primary teeth (mainly children)

The reported estimate for discomfort with ART versus conventional treatment was inconclusive (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

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

Dental caries · Children and adolescents (general population, aged under 20 years)

Across two studies, 50% showed any association of potential public health harm for dental caries (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Machine-learning algorithms for dental caries detection vs Different machine-learning algorithms for caries prediction

Post-Streptococcus mutans prediction accuracy · Dental images of human beings

The review reported 99% accuracy for post-Streptococcus mutans prediction in Javed et al. (Ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Baby-led weaning (BLW) / BLISS vs Traditional complementary feeding (TCF)

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

No significant difference in choking risk was found between BLW/BLISS-fed and traditionally fed infants (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Food and nonalcoholic beverage marketing (exposure) vs No, less, or less powerful food marketing

Body weight / BMI · Children and adolescents (general population, aged under 20 years)

Evidence on food marketing and body weight is very uncertain (very low certainty); a single study found no association.

1 finding from 1 review

Dental caries vs Caries-free status

Beta diversity and community composition · Participants in oral 16S rRNA caries microbiome studies

Beta-diversity matrices showed statistically significant ADONIS results, while clustering by study and 16S region was also observed; no pooled effect estimate was reported.

1 finding from 1 review

Resin infiltration vs Pre-treatment baseline before infiltration (T0); pooled as a within-arm before/after change

Lightness/brightness change of white spot lesion (luminosity L*, T0 to T1) · Patients with post-orthodontic white spot lesions and permanent dentition

ICON resin infiltration showed no statistically significant change in lightness/brightness of post-orthodontic white spot lesions at 6 months (pooled Cohen's d/SMD -0.001, 95% CI -0.23 to 0.23; 3 studies, 330 teeth; I2=97%); not GRADE-rated.

1 finding from 1 review

Combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) vs Monotherapy or dual antiretroviral therapy

Oral hairy leukoplakia prevalence · Children and adolescents (<18 years) living with HIV (CLWH)

No eligible studies compared oral hairy leukoplakia between different ART regimens.

1 finding from 1 review

Antiretroviral therapy (any, including cART) vs No antiretroviral medication (treatment-naive)

Mucosal hyperpigmentation prevalence · Children and adolescents (<18 years) living with HIV (CLWH)

No significant difference in mucosal hyperpigmentation between CLWH with and without ART (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Pulpotomy (full or partial) vs None (single-arm pooled success proportion)

Overall success (composite of clinical and radiographic success) · Human permanent teeth with irreversible pulpitis and closed (mature) root apex due to carious pulp exposure

In closed-apex teeth, pooled pulpotomy success was 83% (95% CI 69-91%); significantly lower than open apex (z=2.33, p=0.02); 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 · Children (mean age newborn to ~5.2 years) and their parents/carers

Comprehensive interventions produced a statistically significant reduction in tooth-level caries (dmft SMD -0.47, 95% CI -0.84 to -0.10; 4 studies; not GRADE-rated), though heterogeneity was very high.

1 finding from 1 review

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

Restoration failure · Children with carious primary teeth

No comparative effect estimate was reported; no bevel had twice the failure rate in the review narrative.

1 finding from 1 review

Genetically predicted gene expression (TWAS; S-PrediXcan with GTEx v8 cis-eQTL across 49 tissues; cross-tissue S-MultiXcan) vs ECC-unaffected children (association of genetically predicted expression)

Early childhood caries (ECC) - association with genetically predicted expression of TAS2R14 (chr12p13.2) · Children up to age 5-6 years (European / European non-Hispanic ancestry); 843 ECC-affected vs 2124 unaffected across 5 cohorts (N=2974)

Genetically predicted expression of TAS2R14 was significantly associated with ECC in the TWAS (p = 1.06e-6); genetic association, ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Hall technique vs Compomer restoration or non-restorative caries treatment

Restoration failure · Children with carious primary teeth

No comparative effect estimate was reported; the review reports this three-arm comparison but tabulates only compomer failure.

1 finding from 1 review

Maternal education attainment vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Secondary/higher maternal education prevalence (among children with caries) · Children with dental caries (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

About 45% of children with caries in LMICs had mothers with secondary or higher education (pooled prevalence 0.450, 95% CI 0.330 to 0.572; 7 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF, including SDF + fluoride varnish) vs Other standard-of-care caries treatments pooled (placebo, ART, or ART + fluoride varnish)

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

SDF had no significant effect on oral health-related quality of life versus pooled standard-of-care caries treatments (SMD -0.06, 95% CI -0.20 to 0.08; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Caregiver help with child tooth brushing vs Children without dental caries

Dental caries · Children (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

Caregiver help with tooth brushing was associated with 65% lower odds of dental caries (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.93; 3 studies; very high heterogeneity; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review