Findings

What do systematic reviews say?

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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

439 questions · 686 findings · 68 reviews

No studies found 4 · 0.6%GRADE not reported 617 · 89.9%Very low 26 · 3.8%Low 20 · 2.9%Moderate 11 · 1.6%High 8 · 1.2%

Postbiotic toothpaste vs Fluoride toothpaste alone

Increased salivary IgA · children aged 6‐12 years

Postbiotics increase salivary IgA (immune modulation) in human trials (ungraded narrative synthesis).

1 finding from 1 review
  • Postbiotics and Dental Caries: A Systematic Review. 2025 All outcomes
    Daily for 14 days to 4 weeks · Clinical; salivary/plaque sampling
    Postbiotic toothpaste significantly increased salivary IgA versus fluoride toothpaste (Basir 2022); the review also cites Lin 2022 for postbiotic immune modulation/IgA; no pooled estimate.
    1 study
    GRADE not reported

Unemployment rate vs Not applicable

Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community

No statistically significant difference in OHRQoL was reported by unemployment rate.

1 finding from 1 review

Ion-releasing restorations (IRR): RMGIC, HVGIC, GIC, compomer/PMRC, giomer vs Composite resin (CR), including bulk-fill composite

Absence of sensibility (post-operative sensitivity) · Children receiving dental restorations (aged 4-11 years; primary teeth; Class I/II/V cavities)

No significant difference between IRR and CR in post-operative sensitivity (high certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Health expenditure per capita vs Higher vs lower per-capita health expenditure categories

Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community

OHRQoL did not differ significantly across per-capita health-expenditure categories; no pooled estimate was reported in the text (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

School-based supervised toothbrushing (STB) vs no intervention

Caries increment on tooth surfaces (dmfs/DMFS) (prevented fraction) · Children in school or kindergarten settings (aged 3-14 years)

School-based supervised toothbrushing produces a small but statistically significant reduction in tooth-surface caries (DMFS/dmfs SMD -0.22, 95% CI -0.42 to -0.01; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Health expenditure per capita vs Not applicable

Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community

No statistically significant difference in OHRQoL was reported by health expenditure per capita.

1 finding from 1 review

Ion-releasing restorations (IRR): RMGIC, HVGIC, GIC, compomer/PMRC, giomer vs Composite resin (CR), including bulk-fill composite

Absence of wear · Children receiving dental restorations (aged 4-11 years; primary teeth; Class I/II/V cavities)

Wear was assessed in a single trial and was not pooled or GRADE-rated (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Country-level edentulism prevalence (Global Burden of Disease) vs Low vs high edentulism prevalence

Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community

OHRQoL did not differ significantly by country-level edentulism prevalence; no pooled estimate was reported in the text (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

School-based supervised toothbrushing (STB) vs no intervention

Dental caries increment, DMFT/dmft (whole-tooth level) · Children in school or kindergarten settings (aged 3-14 years)

School-based supervised toothbrushing has no statistically significant effect on whole-tooth caries (DMFT/dmft SMD 0.05, 95% CI -0.27 to 0.37; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Dental caries vs Caries-free status

Oral microbial community composition and diversity (other caries-associated taxa; alpha- and beta-diversity) · Systemically healthy individuals (children and adults, aged 40 months to 50 years) assessed for dental caries

No oral microbial taxon other than S. mutans was consistently associated with caries; alpha-diversity mostly did not differ between caries-active and caries-free groups and beta-diversity findings were mixed (ungraded, narrative).

1 finding from 1 review
  • Streptococcus mutans and Caries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2025 All outcomes
    Cross-sectional · Clinical oral-microbiome studies; saliva and/or supragingival plaque samples; 7 countries; DNA/RNA-based sequencing or microarray
    Narrative synthesis (no pooled estimate): no bacterial genus or species other than S. mutans was consistently (reported in more than 2 studies) associated with caries-active status (Table 3; 15 of 19 studies for…
    Studies not reported
    GRADE not reported

Partial pulpotomy with immediate (same-visit) permanent restoration vs No comparator

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

Immediate permanent restoration was associated with a pooled success rate of 89.9%.

1 finding from 1 review

Secondary (passive/secondhand) smoking exposure during childhood vs No secondary smoking exposure

Early childhood caries (ECC) - incidence/risk · Preschool children aged <=71 months (caries outcome assessed at 3-6 years)

Children exposed to secondary smoking from infancy have a higher incidence of early childhood caries by age 3 (RR 1.45; low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) vs Healthy controls without cleft

Bleeding Index (BI) · Individuals assessed for periodontal health (mainly children and adolescents, age >2 years)

Bleeding index is significantly higher in persons with orofacial cleft than in healthy controls (p<0.0001), but no pooled effect size was reported (ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Out-of-pocket health expenditure vs Lower vs higher out-of-pocket expenditure categories

Oral health-related quality of life · people aged 60 years and older living in the community

Lower out-of-pocket health expenditure was associated with better OHRQoL (83.9, 95% CI 75.2 to 92.6 vs 67.5, 95% CI 58.5 to 76.5); the difference was statistically significant (ungraded).

2 findings from 1 review