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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

1,692 questions · 2,586 findings · 180 reviews · Dental caries

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No studies found 194 · 7.5%GRADE not reported 1,937 · 74.9%Very low 248 · 9.6%Low 136 · 5.3%Moderate 52 · 2%High 19 · 0.7%

AI systems for caries detection/segmentation on dental X-ray images (predominantly convolutional neural networks; also ANNs, DNNs, DCNN, FCNN, SVMs, decision trees, random forests; e.g. EfficientNet, ResNet, AlexNet) vs Human dentists / trained dental professionals or traditional radiographic interpretation (reference standard / reference models)

Specificity · Patients undergoing dental X-ray (radiographic) imaging for caries detection

Across 7 studies, AI showed high weighted-mean specificity (~87.9%) for caries detection, with very high heterogeneity (I2=96%); ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

AI systems for caries detection/segmentation on dental X-ray images (predominantly convolutional neural networks; also ANNs, DNNs, DCNN, FCNN, SVMs, decision trees, random forests; e.g. EfficientNet, ResNet, AlexNet) vs Human dentists / trained dental professionals or traditional radiographic interpretation (reference standard / reference models)

Sensitivity · Patients undergoing dental X-ray (radiographic) imaging for caries detection

Pooling 9 studies (17,190 participants), AI sensitivity for caries detection showed no significant association (pooled OR 1.258, 95% CI 0.493-2.540) with high heterogeneity (I2=86%); ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

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

Oral candidiasis prevalence · Adult e-cigarette (ENDS) users (general oral health; predominantly natural dentition)

E-cigarette users may have a higher prevalence of oral Candida colonization than non-smokers (narrative synthesis; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Secondary (passive/secondhand) smoking exposure during childhood vs No secondary smoking exposure

Caries prevalence (early childhood caries) · Preschool children aged <=71 months (caries outcome assessed at 3-6 years)

Preschool children exposed to secondary smoking have higher odds of caries prevalence (OR 1.77), but the cross-sectional evidence is very uncertain (very low certainty).

2 findings from 1 review

Fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances (exposure) vs None (single-group prevalence/incidence estimate)

Prevalence of ICLs (mean number of lesions per subject) · Patients (permanent dentition) during or after fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances

Patients had on average about 2.24 ICLs per subject during/after fixed orthodontic treatment (95% CI 1.79-2.70; very low certainty; very high heterogeneity).

1 finding from 1 review

Fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances (exposure) vs None (single-group prevalence/incidence estimate)

Association between orthodontic treatment duration and ICLs prevalence · Patients (permanent dentition) during or after fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances

ICLs prevalence increased with longer orthodontic treatment duration (meta-regression P=.01; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Extraction of the mandibular permanent first molar vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Rotation of the mandibular second premolar · Children and adolescents after extraction of a mandibular permanent first molar (before eruption of the second molar)

After mandibular first molar extraction, the second premolar was rotated in about 60% of cases (2 studies; very imprecise; not GRADE-rated).

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

Extraction of the mandibular permanent first molar vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Rotation of the mandibular first premolar · Children and adolescents after extraction of a mandibular permanent first molar (before eruption of the second molar)

After mandibular first molar extraction, the first premolar was rotated in about 38% of cases (2 studies; very imprecise; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances (exposure) vs None (single-group prevalence/incidence estimate)

Prevalence of ICLs (proportion of tooth surfaces affected) · Patients (permanent dentition) during or after fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances

About 22% of tooth surfaces showed ICLs during/after fixed orthodontic treatment (pooled 0.22, 95% CI 0.14-0.33; very low certainty; extreme heterogeneity).

1 finding from 1 review

Fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances (exposure) vs None (single-group prevalence/incidence estimate)

Prevalence of ICLs (proportion of subjects affected) · Patients (permanent dentition) during or after fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed (multibracket) appliances

Around 57% of patients had ICLs during or after fixed orthodontic treatment (pooled prevalence 0.57, 95% CI 0.48-0.65; very low certainty; very high heterogeneity).

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

Fluoride toothpaste vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Fluoride toothpaste use prevalence (among children with caries) · Children with dental caries (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

About 39% of children with caries in LMICs used fluoride toothpaste (pooled prevalence 0.391, 95% CI 0.166 to 0.644; 2 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Caries assessment at dentine threshold (cavitation into dentine) vs None (descriptive prevalence review; subgroup analyses by urban/rural status, country and year)

Dental caries prevalence · European adolescents aged 12–19 years

Caries prevalence at the dentine threshold was about 56% (pooled 0.56, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.68; 15 studies; not GRADE-rated).

7 findings from 1 review
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Caries assessment at enamel threshold vs None (descriptive prevalence review; subgroup analyses by urban/rural status, country and year)

Dental caries prevalence · European adolescents aged 12–19 years

Enamel-threshold caries prevalence in subgroup 'Region: non-Scandinavian' was 0.74 (95% CI 0.53 to 0.96; 11 studies).

11 findings from 1 review
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Machine-learning algorithms for dental caries detection vs Different machine-learning algorithms for caries prediction

Caries detection accuracy in unrestored molars and premolars · Dental images of human beings

The review reported 92.37% accuracy for automated caries detection in Duong et al. (Ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Combined antiretroviral therapy (post-cART) vs Pre-cART (same children, before therapy)

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

Oral candidiasis prevalence fell significantly after cART compared with before cART in the same children (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Caregiver help with child tooth brushing vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Caregiver help with tooth brushing prevalence (among children with caries) · Children with dental caries (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

About 54% of children with caries in LMICs received caregiver help with tooth brushing (pooled prevalence 0.541, 95% CI 0.266 to 0.803; 3 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Female sex vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Female sex prevalence (among children with caries) · Children with dental caries (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

Among children with caries in LMICs, about half were female (pooled prevalence 0.497, 95% CI 0.475 to 0.519; 6 studies; I2=0%; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Sugary drinks/sweets consumption vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Sugary drinks/sweets consumption prevalence (among children with caries) · Children with dental caries (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

About 70% of children with caries in LMICs consumed sugary drinks/sweets (pooled prevalence 0.697, 95% CI 0.478 to 0.877; 7 studies; very high heterogeneity; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review