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Each row is one question a systematic review asked: who, what, compared with what, and which outcome, with the effect it found and how certain that is. Words match anywhere in the field.
4 questions in 3 reviews · intervention: Diet/sugar · outcome domain: Microbiological/plaque
current versionsNo studies 0 · 0%Ungraded 4 · 100%Very low 0 · 0%Low 0 · 0%Moderate 0 · 0%High 0 · 0%
Ungraded means an effect was reported without a GRADE rating; it is not a gap. No studies means the review found nothing to answer the question. The six categories are a display order, not a score.
Intervention categories, outcome domains and clusters are a proposed key pending human validation. Clear all filters
| Question | Effect | Evidence | Status / GRADE |
|---|---|---|---|
Stevia (high-intensity/non-nutritive sweetener) in a daily snack vs Baseline (within-group change); white sugar snack is a parallel arm with no between-group effect size reported Change in Mutans streptococci (MS) and Lactobacilli in saliva · Schoolchildren (6-9 years), high caries risk · 42 days, Single study (Cocco 2019); not pooled Clinical Effects of Sugar Substitutes on Cariogenic Bacteria: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. (2024) | Cocco 2019 (the only high-intensity sweetener trial): the stevia snack showed a significant decrease in MS (P < .01) and in lactobacilli (P = .03) versus baseline, whereas the white-sugar snack showed no significant… | 1 study · 271 participants | Ungraded |
Package of oral health education/promotion including oral hygiene advice for pregnant women, mothers, infants and young children, plus dietary and feeding practice advice for infants and young children vs Standard care Child microbiological presence (mutans streptococci colonisation) · For interventions, pregnant women, mothers or other caregivers of infants in the first year of life; for outcomes,… Interventions with pregnant women, new mothers and other primary caregivers for preventing early childhood… (2024) · Cochrane | Yu 2021: MS colonisation level (CFU x10^4) lower with intervention at 2 yrs (MD -2.80) and 3 yrs (MD -15, 95% CI -27.75 to -2.25) but not 1 yr (MD -0.20, 95% CI -0.50 to 0.10); MS-to-total-bacteria ratio lower at 1 yr… | 1 study | Ungraded |
Gum chewing (sugar-free) vs No gum chewing (control) Salivary flow rate, stimulated and/or unstimulated (narrative synthesis) · Elderly (>60 years) and medically compromised adults with xerostomia / dry mouth · Various (single session to 12 months) The effect of gum chewing on xerostomia and salivary flow rate in elderly and medically compromised… (2023) | Narrative vote-count: of 19 studies measuring stimulated and/or unstimulated saliva flow rate, 9 found a positive effect of gum chewing [17,18,22,24,27,35,36,38,39] and 10 detected no effect… | 19 studies | Ungraded |
Gum chewing (sugar-free) vs No gum chewing (control) Unstimulated whole salivary flow rate · Elderly (>60 years) and medically compromised adults with xerostomia / dry mouth · Gum chewed daily for >=2 weeks (2 to 12 weeks; multiple time points for Kim and Ozen) The effect of gum chewing on xerostomia and salivary flow rate in elderly and medically compromised… (2023) | SMD 0.44 [0.22, 0.66] | 6 studies · 291 participants | Ungraded |