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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

1,378 questions · 2,146 findings · 145 reviews · Oral Health

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No studies found 167 · 7.8%GRADE not reported 1,674 · 78%Very low 148 · 6.9%Low 113 · 5.3%Moderate 40 · 1.9%High 4 · 0.2%

Intervention not reported

Dental caries prevalence · Children (<12 years) and adolescents (12-18 years) with type 1 diabetes

Caries prevalence was higher in those with mean age <=10 years at 80% (95% CI 0.74 to 0.85); certainty not graded.

1 finding from 1 review

Intervention not reported

Dental caries prevalence · Children (<12 years) and adolescents (12-18 years) with type 1 diabetes

Caries prevalence among those with poor metabolic control was 66% (95% CI 0.43 to 0.83); certainty not graded.

1 finding from 1 review

Initiation of water fluoridation (artificial or natural) vs Low/non-fluoridated water (0.4 ppm fluoride or less)

Dental caries in adults · adults

The review found no eligible studies for this question.

1 finding from 1 review
  • Water fluoridation for the prevention of dental caries 2015 · Cochrane All outcomes
    Adults
    No studies that aimed to determine the effectiveness of water fluoridation for preventing caries in adults met the review's inclusion criteria. There are no data to determine the effect of water fluoridation on caries…
    0 studies
    No studies found

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

Mean DMFT (decayed, missing, filled permanent teeth) · Individuals of all ages

Individuals with Down syndrome had a lower mean DMFT in permanent teeth than controls (pooled SMD -0.18, 95% CI -0.35 to -0.02; 6 studies; I2=20%); certainty of evidence not graded.

1 finding from 1 review

Breastfeeding vs Bottle feeding

Dental caries · Children with exclusively primary dentition (age ≤71 months)

In a meta-analysis of two cross-sectional studies, breastfed children had lower odds of dental caries than bottle-fed children (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.80); certainty was not formally graded.

2 findings 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

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)

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
Show 1 more finding

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

Access to dental care / health services vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Access to/visited dental services prevalence · Children (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries

About 44% of children in LMICs had access to or had visited dental services (pooled prevalence 0.444, 95% CI 0.277 to 0.618; 5 studies; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with 24-month recall vs Clinical examination with 6-month recall

Dental caries · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with 24-month recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: number of tooth surfaces with any caries (ICDAS 1-6) compared with clinical examination with 6-month recall (moderate certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with risk-based recall vs Clinical examination with 6-month recall

Dental caries: prevalence of root caries · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with risk-based recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: prevalence of root caries compared with clinical examination with 6-month recall; GRADE not reported.

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with 24-month recall vs Clinical examination with 6-month recall

Dental caries: prevalence of moderate to extensive caries (ICDAS 3-6) · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with 24-month recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: prevalence of moderate to extensive caries (ICDAS 3-6) compared with clinical examination with 6-month recall (low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with risk-based recall vs Clinical examination with 6-month recall

Dental caries: prevalence of moderate to extensive caries (ICDAS 3-6) · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with risk-based recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: prevalence of moderate to extensive caries (ICDAS 3-6) compared with clinical examination with 6-month recall (moderate certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with risk-based recall vs Clinical examination with 6-month recall

Dental caries · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with risk-based recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: number of tooth surfaces with any caries (ICDAS 1-6) compared with clinical examination with 6-month recall (high certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with risk-based recall vs Clinical examination with 24-month recall

Dental caries: prevalence of root caries · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with risk-based recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: prevalence of root caries compared with clinical examination with 24-month recall; GRADE not reported.

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with 24-month recall vs Clinical examination with 6-month recall

Dental caries: prevalence of root caries · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with 24-month recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: prevalence of root caries compared with clinical examination with 6-month recall; GRADE not reported.

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with risk-based recall vs Clinical examination with 24-month recall

Dental caries: prevalence of moderate to extensive caries (ICDAS 3-6) · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with risk-based recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: prevalence of moderate to extensive caries (ICDAS 3-6) compared with clinical examination with 24-month recall (moderate certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Clinical examination with risk-based recall vs Clinical examination with 24-month recall

Dental caries · Dentate adults (aged 18 years and older) receiving dental check-ups in UK general dental practices (regular attenders)

Clinical examination with risk-based recall showed no clear difference in dental caries: number of tooth surfaces with any caries (ICDAS 1-6) compared with clinical examination with 24-month recall (moderate certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Laser enamel preparation alone (Er,Cr:YSGG or CO2 laser) vs Acid-etching (phosphoric acid)

Development of >=1 new carious lesion (caries incidence) · Caries-free children to young adults with premolars/molars requiring pit-and-fissure sealants

In the single study reporting it, caries incidence was 0% in both the laser-alone and acid-etching groups (ungraded, single study).

1 finding from 1 review