Plaque · Adults and children (predominantly adults; one study in children), with natural dentition
Sugar-free chewing gum significantly reduced plaque quantity versus no-gum/control (SMD -0.778, 95% CI -1.167 to -0.390), with high heterogeneity (I2 = 86.6%) and no GRADE rating (ungraded).
2 findings from 1 review
Enamel caries proportion · European adolescents aged 12–19 years
Enamel caries made up about half of total caries experience (pooled proportion 0.50, 95% CI 0.39 to 0.65; 7 studies; higher in 12–15 than 16–19-year-olds; not GRADE-rated).
3 findings from 1 review
Proportion 0.50 [0.39, 0.65]
7 studies · 7056 participants
GRADE not reported
Proportion 0.37 [0.24, 0.56]
3 studies
GRADE not reported
Proportion 0.56 [0.42, 0.76]
8 studies
GRADE not reported
Oral health-related quality of life · Children with dental caries
The network estimate found no statistically significant difference in oral health-related quality of life between atraumatic restorative treatment and silver diamine fluoride.
2 findings from 1 review
Dental caries (association with primary maternal education) · Children (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries
Primary maternal education was associated with 25% higher odds of dental caries (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.54; 7 studies; not GRADE-rated).
1 finding from 1 review
Association between age and daily fluoride intake from toothpaste · Children using fluoride toothpaste (all tap-water fluoride categories)
There was no correlation between daily fluoride intake from toothpaste and the age of children (all R2 < 0.14), across all tap-water fluoride categories (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Restoration survival · Children with occlusoproximal caries in primary teeth
Multiple reviews reported similar restoration survival for ART versus conventional restorations in occlusoproximal cavities (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Dental caries (association with middle SES) · Children (deciduous and/or permanent dentition) in low- and middle-income countries
Middle SES showed no significant association with dental caries (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.10; 7 studies; not GRADE-rated).
1 finding from 1 review
Contribution to total daily fluoride intake · children
For children in high-fluoridated areas, the mean contribution was 41% (SD 24%).
1 finding from 1 review
Mucocele · Children or adolescents
No significant difference in mucocele between groups (OR 3.03, 95% CI 0.12 to 75.37; single study).
1 finding from 1 review
Immediate bond strength (MPa) · Glass-ionomer cement bonded to caries-affected dentin (in vitro)
SDF pretreatment with a rinsing step does not affect glass-ionomer cement bond strength to caries-affected dentin (MD -0.36 MPa, 95% CI -1.07 to 0.35; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Immediate bond strength (MPa) · Glass-ionomer cement bonded to dentin (in vitro), sound or caries-affected
Prior SDF application does not influence the immediate bond strength of glass-ionomer cement to dentin (MD -0.11 MPa, 95% CI -0.54 to 0.31; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Treatment failure (annual failure rate) · Children with carious primary teeth treated by atraumatic restorative treatment (hand-instrument caries removal), no pulp therapy
ART restorations (mainly GIC) had a wide annual failure rate (1.2-37.1%) across 10 RCTs, with technique affecting survival; low to unclear quality of evidence (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Caries experience at the surface level (dmfs/defs) · Children (mean age newborn to ~5.2 years) and their parents/carers
Behaviour change interventions delivered by non-dental health workers produced a small, statistically significant reduction in caries experience at the surface level (dmfs SMD -0.15, 95% CI -0.25 to -0.04; 12 studies); the review judged the overall evidence to be of low quality (not GRADE-rated).
1 finding from 1 review
Alpha diversity (Shannon) · Children providing oral (saliva/supragingival plaque) 16S rRNA microbiome samples
In children, caries-vs-health Shannon alpha diversity differed significantly (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Dentinal caries in permanent (newly erupted) teeth · School children and adolescents (6-18 years) followed from primary dentition (baseline examination before 72 months of age)
Dentinal caries in the primary dentition is associated with about 3.2 times higher odds of dentinal caries in permanent teeth (single study; not GRADE-rated).
1 finding from 1 review
Discrimination of caries vs health (random forest ROC-AUC) · Individuals providing oral (saliva/supragingival plaque) 16S rRNA microbiome samples; 2016 samples from 19 studies (mixed children and…
Microbiome-based random forest classifiers could not reliably discriminate caries from health across the combined cohort (best AUC approximately 0.75 in a disease-only KO subset; ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
Discomfort during treatment · Children (3-10 years) with dentine caries in primary molars
The reported estimate for treatment discomfort with the Hall Technique versus conventional restorations was inconclusive (ungraded).
1 finding from 1 review
RR 1.67 [0.65, 4.25]
2 studies
GRADE not reported
Restoration failure · Children with carious primary teeth
No comparative effect estimate was reported; composite resin outperformed HVGIC in the review narrative.
1 finding from 1 review
Treatment failure (annual failure rate) · Children with carious primary molars treated by pulpotomy (vital pulp therapy)
Preformed metal crowns had a low annual failure rate (2.5%) in primary molars after pulpotomy, but the evidence is of low quality (single high-risk-of-bias split-mouth RCT; not GRADE-rated).
2 findings from 1 review
Mucocele prevalence · Children and adolescents (<18 years) living with HIV (CLWH)
No significant difference in mucocele between CLWH with and without ART (very low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
OR 0.02 [0.00, 1.09]
Studies not reported
Very low