evidencegaps
Search

What do systematic reviews say?

Refine by population, intervention, comparison or outcome
More filters
Evidence found and GRADE certainty

394 questions · 795 findings · 66 reviews · Dental caries

Sort:Best matchNewestHighest certaintyDownload CSV
No studies found 5 · 0.6%GRADE not reported 753 · 94.7%Very low 31 · 3.9%Low 4 · 0.5%Moderate 2 · 0.3%High 0 · 0%

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

Maternal education attainment vs Children without dental caries

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

Secondary/higher maternal education showed no significant association with dental caries (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.44; 7 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Obesity or overweight (higher BMI, mostly WHO BMI ≥25/≥30; 2 studies used waist circumference) vs Normal Weight or Non‐Obese

Dental caries · Adults (≥18 years)

After adjustment for confounders, obesity/overweight was not associated with dental caries (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.89 to 1.12; ungraded).

9 findings from 1 review
Show 6 more findings

High-frequency sugar consumption (three or more times daily) vs Low sugar intake (fewer than three times daily)

Early childhood caries experience (mean dmft) · Nigerian children with primary dentition (approximately 6 months to 5 years)

In primary dentition, high-frequency sugar consumption was associated with slightly higher, non-significant odds of caries (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.23 to 5.44), with high heterogeneity (I2=83%; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Down syndrome vs Individuals without Down syndrome (healthy controls: siblings, schoolchildren or others)

Dental caries · Individuals of all ages

Individuals with Down syndrome had a lower prevalence of dental caries than those without (pooled OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.57; 2 studies; I2=0%); certainty of evidence not graded.

1 finding from 1 review

Electronic cigarette use vs Non-smokers (non-users)

Dental caries and cariogenic bacteria (Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacilli) · Adult e-cigarette (ENDS) users (general oral health; predominantly natural dentition)

E-cigarette use is associated with more cariogenic bacteria and increased dental caries risk compared with non-smokers (narrative synthesis; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Primary school-based interventions (one or more of: school health policy, oral health education, healthy school environment, access to oral health services, community involvement) vs usual practice

Dental caries prevalence measured by dmft or DMFT/S score greater than one · Primary school children (aged 3-16 years) attending primary school in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)

School-based interventions may reduce the prevalence of dental caries (RR 0.70, favouring intervention), but the certainty of evidence is very low.

3 findings from 1 review

Fluoride mouthrinse (0.05-0.32% sodium fluoride or amine fluoride) added to daily fluoride toothpaste vs Control: fluoride toothpaste alone, placebo mouthrinse + toothpaste, or non-fluoride (chlorhexidine) mouthrinse + toothpaste

Incidence of proximal (interdental) caries lesions from bitewing radiographs · Orthodontic patients (any age) undergoing orthodontic treatment (mostly fixed appliances)

Only one included study assessed proximal caries incidence from bitewing radiographs; it was not included in the meta-analysis and no pooled estimate is available (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

HDI (quantitative) vs Populations in countries with a higher Human Development Index (very high, HDI >=0.800)

Caries experience (mean DMFT) · Adults aged 19-60 years

Pooled caries experience (DMFT) was similar in very-high-HDI and high-HDI countries, and meta-regression found no significant association between national HDI and DMFT; ungraded observational evidence with very high heterogeneity.

3 findings from 1 review

Higher JIA disease activity/severity (e.g., high JADAS/activity scores, polyarticular RF-negative subtype, active disease, anti-TNFalpha or cyclosporine medication) vs Lower JIA disease activity / inactive or milder JIA

Prevalence and severity of oral and TMJ diseases/conditions (periodontal status and dental caries) · Children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)

Some studies suggested greater JIA disease activity/severity (and certain medications) was associated with worse periodontal and caries outcomes, but small samples meant no solid conclusion could be drawn (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

rs10974056 effect allele A (intron variant in GLIS3, chr9:3,889,264) vs Non-effect allele C

Dental caries · Adults from Japanese and European cohorts (present-study Japanese direct-to-consumer cohort + GLIDE consortium and UK Biobank European…

Meta-analysis identified a novel genome-wide-significant locus for dental caries at rs10974056 in GLIS3 (P=3.93E-08); ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

rs4801882 effect allele G (intron variant in SIGLEC5, chr19:52,127,053) vs Non-effect allele A

Dental caries · Adults from Japanese and European cohorts (present-study Japanese direct-to-consumer cohort + GLIDE consortium and UK Biobank European…

Meta-analysis identified a novel genome-wide-significant locus for dental caries at rs4801882 in SIGLEC5 (P=1.71E-08); ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Vegetarian diet (any diet excluding all meat, poultry and fish) vs Nonvegetarian diet

Dental caries measures other than pooled DMFT (DMFS, decayed/filled surfaces and teeth, root caries, nonvisible lesions, white spots) · General population (children and adults) assessed for dental hard-tissue health

Evidence on other dental-caries measures was inconsistent: some indices (decayed surfaces/teeth, root caries, white spots) were higher in vegetarians while some studies found lower caries in vegetarian children (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review
  • Vegetarian diet and its possible influence on dental health: A systematic literature review. 2020 All outcomes
    Multiple countries (mostly India; also Finland and other European countries, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago); community and clinical settings
    Eleven studies reported dental caries using 11 definitions; four (DMFT) were meta-analysed (see O2). Narrative findings were inconsistent: DMFS results were mixed; decayed surfaces and decayed teeth and percentages of…
    Studies not reported
    GRADE not reported