Adequate color or translucency · Children receiving dental restorations (aged 4-11 years; primary teeth; Class I/II/V cavities)
No significant difference between IRR and CR in color or translucency (moderate certainty; downgraded for inconsistency).
1 finding from 1 review
Relative abundance of S. mutans in saliva · Systemically healthy individuals (children and adults, aged 40 months to 50 years) assessed for dental caries
The relative abundance of S. mutans in saliva is significantly higher in caries-active than caries-free individuals (pooled SMD 1.48, 95% CI 0.45 to 2.50), but heterogeneity is very high (I2=90%); ungraded.
1 finding from 1 review
Early childhood caries (ECC) · Children aged 0-5 years in North Africa
An early first dental visit was associated with much lower odds of ECC (OR 0.042).
2 findings from 1 review
OR 0.042 [0.013, 0.136]
1 study
GRADE not reported
OR 0.248 [0.072, 0.852]
1 study
GRADE not reported
Proper anatomic form · Children receiving dental restorations (aged 4-11 years; primary teeth; Class I/II/V cavities)
No significant difference between IRR and CR in anatomic form (high certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Overall success (composite of clinical and radiographic success) · Adults aged 18 years or older with mature permanent teeth and carious pulp exposure
In the high-risk-study-excluded sensitivity meta-regression, longer follow-up was associated with lower success.
1 finding from 1 review
Model discrimination (area under the ROC curve, AUC) · Children and adolescents aged 1-18 years
Simplified childhood caries prediction models show moderate pooled discrimination (AUC 0.79, 95% CI 0.73-0.84) but with very high heterogeneity (I2=97.3%) and all models at high risk of bias (PROBAST); ungraded.
1 finding from 1 review
Oral health knowledge (1-9 scale) · school‐age children and adolescents
Theory-based interventions significantly improved oral health knowledge (SMD 1.09; low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Early childhood caries (ECC) · Children aged 0-5 years in North Africa
Unsupervised brushing showed a non-significant association with ECC (OR 1.385, p=0.061).
1 finding from 1 review
OR 1.385 [0.809, 1.369]
1 study
GRADE not reported
Increased salivary IgA · children aged 6‐12 years
Postbiotics increase salivary IgA (immune modulation) in human trials (ungraded narrative synthesis).
1 finding from 1 review
Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community
No statistically significant difference in OHRQoL was reported by unemployment rate.
1 finding from 1 review
Absence of sensibility (post-operative sensitivity) · Children receiving dental restorations (aged 4-11 years; primary teeth; Class I/II/V cavities)
No significant difference between IRR and CR in post-operative sensitivity (high certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community
OHRQoL did not differ significantly across per-capita health-expenditure categories; no pooled estimate was reported in the text (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Early childhood caries (ECC) · Children aged 0-5 years in North Africa
Nocturnal feeding was associated with higher odds of ECC (OR 2.417).
1 finding from 1 review
OR 2.417 [1.340, 4.358]
1 study
GRADE not reported
Caries increment on tooth surfaces (dmfs/DMFS) (prevented fraction) · Children in school or kindergarten settings (aged 3-14 years)
School-based supervised toothbrushing produces a small but statistically significant reduction in tooth-surface caries (DMFS/dmfs SMD -0.22, 95% CI -0.42 to -0.01; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community
No statistically significant difference in OHRQoL was reported by health expenditure per capita.
1 finding from 1 review
Absence of wear · Children receiving dental restorations (aged 4-11 years; primary teeth; Class I/II/V cavities)
Wear was assessed in a single trial and was not pooled or GRADE-rated (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community
OHRQoL did not differ significantly by country-level edentulism prevalence; no pooled estimate was reported in the text (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Early childhood caries (ECC) · Children aged 0-5 years in North Africa
Tooth brushing method was associated with higher odds of ECC (OR 1.435).
1 finding from 1 review
OR 1.435 [1.207, 2.915]
1 study
GRADE not reported
Dental caries increment, DMFT/dmft (whole-tooth level) · Children in school or kindergarten settings (aged 3-14 years)
School-based supervised toothbrushing has no statistically significant effect on whole-tooth caries (DMFT/dmft SMD 0.05, 95% CI -0.27 to 0.37; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Oral microbial community composition and diversity (other caries-associated taxa; alpha- and beta-diversity) · Systemically healthy individuals (children and adults, aged 40 months to 50 years) assessed for dental caries
No oral microbial taxon other than S. mutans was consistently associated with caries; alpha-diversity mostly did not differ between caries-active and caries-free groups and beta-diversity findings were mixed (ungraded, narrative).
1 finding from 1 review