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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

2,297 questions · 3,638 findings · 215 reviews · All outcomes

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No studies found 98 · 2.7%GRADE not reported 2,946 · 81%Very low 263 · 7.2%Low 158 · 4.3%Moderate 137 · 3.8%High 36 · 1%

Living with HIV and undergoing antiretroviral therapy (ART/HAART) vs Healthy HIV-negative controls

Linear gingival erythema (WHO clinical stage 2) · Children or adolescents

No difference in linear gingival erythema between groups (pooled OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.06 to 16.19); the lesion was essentially absent in both groups.

1 finding from 1 review

Responsive complementary feeding (RCF) / other caregivers' feeding practices vs Other models of complementary feeding (traditional/non-responsive CF)

Dental caries · Healthy, term-born, normal-birth-weight infants aged 4-24 months (breastfed and/or formula-fed) in Western industrialized countries

No eligible studies examined the influence of complementary feeding practices on later dental caries; this is an evidence gap.

1 finding from 1 review

Study-specific random forest classifier vs Caries versus healthy disease-state labels

Study-specific disease-state discrimination · Oral microbiome samples in 15 case-controlled studies

Bong-Soo 2017, Zhu 2018, and Jiang 2019 had mean AUC scores over 0.75; exact study-specific AUCs were not reported in text or readable figure labels.

1 finding from 1 review

Pulpotomy (full or partial) vs None (single-arm pooled success proportion)

Overall success (composite of clinical and radiographic success) · Human permanent teeth with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis due to carious pulp exposure

In symptomatic irreversible pulpitis, pooled pulpotomy success was 84% (95% CI 72-92%); not significantly different from asymptomatic (z=-1.34, p=0.18); ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Enamel caries in primary dentition (at 5 years) vs Caries-free primary dentition

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)

Enamel caries in the primary dentition is associated with about 1.6 times higher odds of dentinal caries in permanent teeth (single study; not GRADE-rated).

1 finding from 1 review

Common genetic variants genome-wide (GWAS; ~3.9 million SNPs with MAF > 5%) vs ECC-unaffected children (per-allele case-control association)

Early childhood caries (ECC) - association at lead SNP rs74470773 (3:33958083; nearest gene(s) PDCD6IP) · Children up to age 5-6 years (European / European non-Hispanic ancestry); 843 ECC-affected vs 2124 unaffected across 5 cohorts (N=2974)

The common variant rs74470773 near PDCD6IP showed suggestive (not genome-wide significant) association with ECC (Z = -4.589, p = 4.46e-6); genetic association, ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Antiretroviral therapy (any, including cART) vs No antiretroviral medication (treatment-naive)

Caries experience · Children and adolescents (<18 years) living with HIV (CLWH)

ART was not associated with a significant difference in dental caries experience among CLWH (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) vs Monotherapy or dual antiretroviral therapy

Persistent parotid enlargement prevalence · Children and adolescents (<18 years) living with HIV (CLWH)

No significant difference in persistent parotid enlargement between ART regimens (very low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Living with HIV and undergoing antiretroviral therapy (ART/HAART) vs Healthy HIV-negative controls

Dental caries (by severity) · Children or adolescents

One study reported higher median caries severity among CLWH under 12 years; no meta-analytic estimate was pooled.

1 finding from 1 review

Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) vs No cleft lip and/or palate (non-CL/P)

Restorative index (RI = f/[d+f]) in the primary dentition · Children in the primary dentition with non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) and comparable children without CL/P

The restorative index tended to be lower in children with CL/P (3 of 5 studies), indicating a lower proportion of restoratively managed carious teeth; not pooled (narrative; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review
  • Caries in children with and without orofacial clefting: A systematic review and meta-analysis. 2022 All outcomes
    Children with CL/P and comparable non-CL/P children across 12 countries (India, Brazil, China, Sweden, UK, USA, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Jordan, Thailand); studies published 1989-2021
    Of the five studies for which the RI could be calculated, three of them (Dahllof 1989; Nagappan 2019; Veiga 2016) showed a lower RI for children with CL/P compared to children with no CL/P demonstrating a lower…
    5 studies
    GRADE not reported

Genetically predicted gene expression (TWAS; S-PrediXcan with GTEx v8 cis-eQTL across 49 tissues; cross-tissue S-MultiXcan) vs ECC-unaffected children (association of genetically predicted expression)

Early childhood caries (ECC) - association with genetically predicted expression of CDH17 (chr8q22.1) · Children up to age 5-6 years (European / European non-Hispanic ancestry); 843 ECC-affected vs 2124 unaffected across 5 cohorts (N=2974)

Genetically predicted expression of CDH17 was significantly associated with ECC in the TWAS (p = 3.32e-8); genetic association, ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Conventional bitewing radiography, F-speed film vs Histological validation of dental tissues (gold standard)

Diagnostic accuracy for proximal caries detection (caries detection level) · Extracted permanent posterior teeth with proximal surfaces (in vitro)

Under in vitro conditions, conventional F-speed bitewing radiography had a summary ROC AUC of 0.72 for proximal caries detection at the caries detection level; ungraded.

4 findings from 1 review
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TaqI (rs731236 T>C) polymorphism in the VDR gene (C allele / variant genotype) vs CT/CC genotype vs TT genotype (dominant model)

Dental caries susceptibility · Children and adults (no age limit) assessed for dental caries susceptibility

No significant association between the TaqI (rs731236 T>C) polymorphism and dental caries for mixed dentition caries under the dominant (CT/CC vs TT) model (OR 1.37, 95% CI 0.81 to 2.33); ungraded.

6 findings from 1 review
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Fluoride-releasing glass ionomer-based bonding agent vs Non-fluoride glass ionomer-based bonding agent

Initiation of white spot lesions (WSL), visual-tactile assessment · Patients of any age (11-40 years) receiving comprehensive/fixed orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances

For a glass-ionomer-based bonding agent (single study), fluoride release significantly reduced WSL initiation (RR 0.64); subgroup not separately GRADE-rated.

1 finding from 1 review

Laser fluorescence (DIAGNOdent 2190/pen) vs Histological validation of dental tissues (gold standard)

Diagnostic accuracy for proximal caries detection (dentin detection level) · Extracted permanent posterior teeth with proximal surfaces (in vitro)

Under in vitro conditions, laser fluorescence (DIAGNOdent 2190) had a summary ROC AUC of 0.83 for proximal caries detection at the dentin detection level; ungraded.

4 findings from 1 review
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TaqI (rs731236 T>C) polymorphism in the VDR gene (C allele / variant genotype) vs CC genotype vs TT genotype (homozygous model)

Dental caries susceptibility · Children and adults (no age limit) assessed for dental caries susceptibility

No significant association between the TaqI (rs731236 T>C) polymorphism and dental caries in Asians under the homozygous (CC vs TT) model (OR 1.38, 95% CI 0.55 to 3.50); ungraded.

6 findings from 1 review
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Presence of dental plaque vs Absence of dental plaque

Dental caries · Individuals in Ethiopia assessed for dental caries

The presence of dental plaque was not significantly associated with dental caries (OR 5.14, 95% CI 0.67 to 39.39); certainty not graded.

1 finding from 1 review

Conventional bitewing radiography (E-speed film) vs Histological validation of dental tissues (gold standard)

Diagnostic accuracy for proximal caries detection (caries detection level) · Extracted permanent posterior teeth with proximal surfaces (in vitro)

Under in vitro conditions, conventional E-speed bitewing radiography had a pooled sensitivity of 0.42 (95% CI 0.28, 0.57) for proximal caries detection at the caries detection level; ungraded.

4 findings from 1 review
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