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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Prior SDF application with a rinsing step vs No prior SDF application (untreated dentin control)

Immediate bond strength (MPa) · Dental adhesives bonded to caries-affected dentin (in vitro)

Prior SDF followed by a rinsing step significantly increases adhesive bond strength to caries-affected dentin (MD -4.79 MPa favoring SDF, 95% CI -9.19 to -0.40; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Low parental socioeconomic status (SES) vs High parental socioeconomic status (SES)

Early childhood caries (ECC) · Healthy children under 6 years in South Africa

No significant difference in caries odds was found between children of low- versus high-SES parents (meta-analysis reported no difference; pooled estimate in an unavailable supplementary figure; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Early childhood caries (ECC) vs Caries-free primary dentition

Caries development in permanent teeth · School children and adolescents (6-18 years) followed from primary dentition (baseline examination before 72 months of age)

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).

1 finding from 1 review

Glass ionomer-based sealant vs No sealant (control/no treatment)

Dental caries increment, DMFT/dmft (whole-tooth level) · Children with caries-free primary first molars (with or without caries on other teeth), aged 1-5 years (paediatric clinic/dental school,…
1 finding from 1 review
  • Sealants for preventing dental caries in primary teeth 2022 · Cochrane All outcomes
    12 months
    Joshi 2019: dmft 8.43 (SD 5.84) with sealant vs 10.05 (SD 6.16) with no sealant at 12 months (caries threshold uncertain); Chadwick 2005: no significant difference in caries increment on occlusal surfaces, no summary…
    2 studies
    GRADE not reported

Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS (BLISS) vs Other models of complementary feeding

Overweight/obesity risk · Healthy children aged 6–24 months in Western industrialized countries

BLISS did not show a statistically significant reduction in overweight/obesity risk at 24 months (low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Glass carbomer vs Resin-modified glass-ionomer cement + composite resin (modified open-sandwich restoration)

Restoration failure · Children with carious primary teeth

No comparative effect estimate was reported; glass carbomer had the highest tabulated failure range.

1 finding from 1 review

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

Chronic herpes simplex infection prevalence · Children and adolescents (<18 years) living with HIV (CLWH)

No significant difference in chronic herpes simplex infection between CLWH with and without ART (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Glass carbomer restoration (placed after drilling) vs Composite resin or RMGIC

Treatment failure (annual failure rate) · Children with previously unrestored, vital carious lesions in primary teeth (no pulp therapy); aged 1.5-11 years

Glass carbomer had very high failure rates (up to 46.2%) in a single RCT, far worse than composite resin or RMGIC; low quality of evidence (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

SDF applied once (single application, no re-application) vs Other non/minimally-invasive treatment (ART or silver-fluoride varnish)

Caries arrest · Children (age 1-10 years) with active cavitated dentin caries lesions in primary molars

A single (one-time) SDF application did not significantly arrest caries (pooled ES -0.09, 95% CI -0.48 to 0.29; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Resin-based fissure sealant vs Fluoride varnish

Caries incidence of first permanent molars (FPMs) · Schoolchildren aged 6-12 years with sound occlusal surfaces of the first permanent molars

Pit and fissure sealant and fluoride varnish showed no statistically significant difference in caries incidence of first permanent molars at 24 months (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.31 to 1.38; I2=89%; not GRADE-rated).

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 LINC02905 (C8orf49) (chr8p23.1) · 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 LINC02905 (C8orf49) expression reached the TWAS threshold for ECC (p = 1.82e-8) but was flagged as a possible false positive (LD misspecification) and not further considered; ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Behaviour change / oral health promotion interventions delivered by non-dental professionals and health workers (nurses, midwives, health visitors, community health workers) vs control (no intervention/usual care/isotonic exercise)

Caries experience · Children (mean age newborn to ~5.2 years) and their parents/carers

Behaviour change interventions delivered by non-dental health workers produced a small-to-moderate, statistically significant reduction in caries experience at the tooth level (dmft SMD -0.34, 95% CI -0.54 to -0.13; 6 studies); the review judged the overall evidence to be of low quality (not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Access to dental care / health services vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Access to/visited dental services prevalence · Children (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

About 44% of children in LMICs had access to or had visited dental services (pooled prevalence 0.444, 95% CI 0.277 to 0.618; 5 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF >=30%, i.e. 30% or 38%), applied annually or biannually vs No treatment or another non-invasive/minimally-invasive treatment (ART, sodium fluoride or silver-based varnish, or 12% SDF)

Caries arrest · Children (age 1-10 years) with active cavitated dentin caries lesions in primary molars

The pooled caries arrest rate with SDF (>=30%, applied annually/biannually) was 51.62% (622/1205 lesions arrested) at >=12 months follow-up.

1 finding from 1 review

GIC with cavity conditioner vs GIC without cavity conditioner

Restoration failure · Children with carious primary teeth

No comparative effect estimate was reported; the review states cavity conditioner did not improve success.

1 finding from 1 review