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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%

Obesity (Unclassified) vs Normal Weight or Non‐Obese

Caries experience (mean DMFT) · Brazilian children/adolescents in permanent dentition (BMI classified by CDC 2000 growth charts)

Normal-weight adolescents may have higher caries experience (DMFT) than obese peers in the permanent dentition, but the evidence is very uncertain (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Periodontal therapy (scaling and root planing), post-treatment vs Pre-treatment (baseline, same group)

High salivary S. mutans (over 10^4 CFU/ml) · Periodontitis patients

High-level S. mutans did not change significantly after periodontal therapy (OR 1.54).

1 finding from 1 review

Overweight/obesity (combined) vs Normal Weight or Non‐Obese

Dental caries prevalence · Brazilian children/adolescents (BMI classified by WHO 2007 percentile)

The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of overweight/obesity on caries odds (WHO 2007 percentile; very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Disability (developmental, intellectual, or sensory) vs Not applicable (single-group prevalence)

Moderate gingival inflammation / gingival health · Persons with disabilities (children and adults with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment, or multiple disabilities)…

Gingival inflammation is common among persons with disabilities in Saudi Arabia (moderate-to-severe up to about 60%), reported narratively without a pooled comparative estimate (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Probiotics vs placebo or control

Plaque index (PI) / oral hygiene · Children and/or adolescents (<18 years) without background systemic disease

Probiotics may make little to no difference to the bacterial plaque index versus control (MD 0.21, 95%CI -0.55 to 0.96; very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Nano-silver fluoride (NSF; with or without green tea extract)

Caries arrestment at the tooth level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

Pooling two trials, SDF and nano-silver fluoride showed no significant difference in tooth-level caries arrestment (OR 1.47; ungraded subgroup).

1 finding from 1 review

Teledentistry diagnosis using DSLR or smartphone extra-oral photographs vs Visual or clinical examination

Sensitivity for dental caries diagnosis · Children and adults with primary or permanent dentition

Sensitivity ranged from 48% to 98.3% across 13 studies; no meta-analysis or GRADE rating was reported.

1 finding from 1 review

AA+GG (homozygous) genotypes vs AG (heterozygous) genotype

Dental caries · Children (<18 years) with vs without dental caries

FokI(rs2228570) over-dominant model: AA+GG vs AG was not significantly associated with dental caries (OR 1.04); ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Prenatal vitamin D level ≤35 nmol/L vs Adequate prenatal vitamin D (sufficient maternal 25(OH)D)

Dental caries · Children aged 2 to 8 years

The review reported a slightly higher odds ratio at maternal prenatal vitamin D ≤35 nmol/L than at ≤50 nmol/L, without a numeric value in the available sources.

1 finding from 1 review

Overweight/obesity (combined) vs Normal Weight or Non‐Obese

Dental caries prevalence · Brazilian children in primary dentition (BMI classified by CDC 2000 growth charts)

The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of overweight/obesity on caries odds in the primary dentition (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Gene sequencing (GS) applied to diagnose/manage oral conditions (predominantly 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing of the oral microbiome; also genome-wide/whole-genome sequencing) vs Negligible ('abysmal') effect of gene sequencing; no separate comparator arm (within-sample event contrast in the forest plots)

Reduction in occurrence of oral conditions · Human patients (any age) with oral-cavity related disorders (e.g. dental caries, periodontitis, gingivitis, peri-implant mucositis,…

Pooled across 8 clinical trials, gene sequencing was associated with a statistically significant risk difference for impact on oral-cavity disorders (RD -0.29, 95% CI -0.32 to -0.26); certainty not GRADE-rated.

1 finding from 1 review

Er:YAG laser irradiation of enamel after demineralisation vs No anticaries intervention (untreated enamel)

Enamel surface microhardness · Demineralised / white-spot-lesion enamel (in vitro specimens)

In demineralised enamel, Er:YAG laser irradiation did not significantly change surface microhardness versus untreated control (SMD 0.66, 95% CI -1.12 to 2.44; 2 in vitro studies; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review