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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

2,066 questions · 3,346 findings · 178 reviews · Dental caries

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No studies found 48 · 1.4%GRADE not reported 2,789 · 83.4%Very low 208 · 6.2%Low 129 · 3.9%Moderate 136 · 4.1%High 36 · 1.1%

Western/Northern Europe (UN M49 region) vs Eastern/Southern Europe (UN M49 geographical categorization)

Caries experience (mean DMFT) · 12-year-old children across European countries (national/regional epidemiological surveys, 2011-2022)

Mean DMFT is lowest in West Europe (0.88) and North Europe (1.34) and highest in East Europe (2.76) and South Europe (2.61) (Figure 3); not GRADE-rated.

4 findings from 1 review
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Living with HIV and undergoing antiretroviral therapy (ART/HAART) vs HIV-negative individuals

Dental caries severity (dmfs index, primary dentition) · Children and adolescents (<18 years) living with HIV (CLWH)

In case-control studies, HIV+ children on ART had a significantly higher dmfs index than HIV-negative peers (MD 5.15, 95% CI 2.20 to 8.11; not separately GRADE-rated).

2 findings 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)

Diagnostic accuracy (prevalence of accuracy) · Patients undergoing dental X-ray (radiographic) imaging for caries detection

On digital bitewing X-rays, AI accuracy was around 80% (single study, narrow CI; ungraded subgroup, numeric estimate not precisely readable).

4 findings from 1 review
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Self-assembling/remineralizing peptide (e.g., P11-4, PAA-PASP) vs Fluoride agent (e.g., NaF/SDF/KF/CaF2)

Immediate (24 h) resin-dentin bond strength (MPa) · Artificial caries-affected dentin (ACAD) in extracted permanent human teeth (in vitro)

In the Self-Etch adhesive + chemical ACAD protocol network, Peptide vs Fluorine showed no significant difference in 24 h bond strength (MD 2.131, 95% CI -2.213 to 6.475; Low certainty).

3 findings from 1 review

AI algorithms (predominantly CNN/deep learning) as index test vs Dental expert / visual-tactile clinical assessment (reference standard)

Sensitivity · Patients undergoing dental caries detection on dental images (teeth/surfaces across imaging modalities)

AI algorithms have high pooled sensitivity (0.85) for detecting dental caries; ungraded, with very high heterogeneity (I2>95%) and evidence of publication bias.

1 finding from 1 review

Calcium phosphate agent (e.g., CPP-ACP, Ca/P-PILP, niobophosphate) vs Calcium-based agent

Immediate (24 h) resin-dentin bond strength (MPa) · Artificial caries-affected dentin (ACAD) in extracted permanent human teeth (in vitro)

In the Etch-and-Rinse adhesive + chemical ACAD protocol network, Calcium Phosphate vs Calcium showed no significant difference in 24 h bond strength (MD 0.596, 95% CI -7.289 to 8.482; Low certainty).

2 findings from 1 review

Partial pulpotomy with one additional day before permanent restoration vs Partial pulpotomy with one fewer day before permanent restoration

Overall success (composite of clinical and radiographic success) · Adults aged 18 years or older with mature permanent teeth and carious pulp exposure

Each additional day before permanent restoration was associated with a 0.088% decrease in success in meta-regression.

1 finding from 1 review

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) vs Children without anemia (non-anemic)

Dental caries · Children or adolescents

Children with iron deficiency anemia are over three times more likely to have dental caries than non-anemic children (OR 3.64, 95% CI 2.45 to 5.40; moderate certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Conventional restoration vs Atraumatic restorative treatment (ART)

Treatment success (caries lesion arrest or restoration survival) · Children (aged 3-11 y) with cavitated caries lesions in primary teeth

At 12 months, conventional restorations had significantly higher treatment success than ART (OR 2.10; moderate certainty).

2 findings from 1 review

Replacement of the defective restoration vs Repair of the defective restoration

Composite: Preference for replacement over repair - Scenario 2: loss of dental hard substance adjacent to the restoration · Dentists managing a defective direct resin composite restoration (posterior occlusal Class I; standardized vignette of a 30-year-old,…

For a defective composite restoration with loss of dental hard substance adjacent to the restoration, surveyed dentists most often preferred repair over replacement (pooled RR 0.75; p = 0.004); ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review