Non-Cochrane · DTA · PM31024013
Reliability of colour and hardness clinical examinations in detecting dentine caries severity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Hon Larry, Mohamed Ahmed, Lynch Edward · Scientific reports · 2019 · PubMed · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41270-6
Full textEvery question was extracted from the full text, figures and supplements by two independent LLM extractors, disagreements adjudicated. Rows cite where in the review the value comes from.
Questions
8
current version
GRADE rated
0
No studies
0
Included studies
8
linked below
No studies 0 · 0%Ungraded 8 · 100%Very low 0 · 0%Low 0 · 0%Moderate 0 · 0%High 0 · 0%
Ungraded means an effect was reported without a GRADE rating; it is not a gap. No studies means the review found nothing to answer the question. The six categories are a display order, not a score.
Review question
| Element | Planned (methods) | Found (results) |
|---|---|---|
| Population | Humans, in vivo, with open primary dentine carious lesions in deciduous or permanent teeth | Patients with dentine carious lesions, children and adults, primary and permanent teeth (n=7 studies) |
| Intervention | Colour clinical examination (visual shade categorization) | Colour clinical examination |
| Comparison | Hardness clinical examination (tactile texture categorization) | Hardness clinical examination |
| Outcomes | Total microbial load (colony forming units, CFU) from carious biopsies as an indicator of lesion severity | Weighted mean difference in log10 CFU between colour and hardness category contrasts; weighted effect size f (n=4 studies considered for meta-analysis) |
| Study designs | RCTs and diagnostic test studies | 5 RCTs and 2 diagnostic test studies (n=7) |
| Timing | Not specified | Not specified |
Search date: 1 April 2018. Databases: PubMed; Medline (Ovid); Web of Science; handsearching of selected dental journals
Questions and results
color contrast: black vs dark brown/light brown/yellow vs hardness contrast: soft vs medium/hard
Population: humans with open primary dentine caries
| Outcome | Effect | Evidence | Status / GRADE |
|---|---|---|---|
total microbial load (log10 CFU) B-DB/LB/Y vs S-M/H In one study, hardness category differences exceeded color category differences; no meta-analysis was conducted. Source: Figure 3a; Results, Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes · same question in other reviews | no estimate extracted | 1 study · 59 participants | Ungraded |
Discriminant power for caries severity: effect size (f) for microbial load (log10 CFU) between lesion categories Population: Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) The weighted effect size favoured hardness (f=2.62) over colour (f=0.46) for discriminating microbial load, supporting hardness as the more reliable examination (ungraded). Source: Results > Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes; Table 4 · same question in other reviews | Effect size (f) colour f=0.46; hardness f=2.62 | 5 studies | Ungraded |
Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories B/DB/LB-Y (colour) vs S/M-H (hardness) Population: Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) For yellow-vs-other colour compared with soft/medium-vs-hard hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -4.45, 95% CI -5.24 to -3.65; ungraded). Source: Results > Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes; Fig. 5d · same question in other reviews | WMD -4.446 [-5.241, -3.650] | 2 studies | Ungraded |
Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories B/DB/LB-Y (colour) vs S-M/H (hardness) Population: Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) For yellow-vs-other colour compared with soft-vs-harder hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -3.87, 95% CI -4.46 to -2.87; ungraded). Source: Results > Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes; Fig. 5b · same question in other reviews | WMD -3.867 [-4.461, -2.874] | 2 studies | Ungraded |
Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories B-DB/LB/Y (colour) vs S/M-H (hardness) Population: Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) For black-vs-other colour compared with soft/medium-vs-hard hardness, the pooled difference in discriminant power was not significant (WMD -0.067, 95% CI -1.88 to 1.74; ungraded). Source: Results > Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes; Fig. 3c · same question in other reviews | WMD -0.067 [-1.877, 1.743] | 2 studies | Ungraded |
Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories B/DB-LB/Y (colour) vs S-M/H (hardness) Population: Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) For dark-vs-light colour compared with soft-vs-harder hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -4.74, 95% CI -4.98 to -4.50; ungraded). Source: Results > Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes; Fig. 4b · same question in other reviews | WMD -4.741 [-4.979, -4.502] | 2 studies | Ungraded |
Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories B-DB/LB/Y (colour) vs S-M/H (hardness) Population: Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) For black-vs-other colour compared with soft-vs-harder hardness, a single study suggested hardness was the more discriminant test, with no pooled estimate (ungraded). Source: Results > Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes; Fig. 3a · same question in other reviews | Only one study (Beighton et al.) permitted this comparison: the mean log10 CFU difference was 2.32 for the colour contrast (black vs rest) versus 3.72 for the hardness contrast (soft vs medium/hard); hardness appeared… | 1 study | Ungraded |
Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories B/DB-LB/Y (colour) vs S/M-H (hardness) Population: Patients with dentine carious lesions (deciduous/permanent teeth; children and adults) For dark-vs-light colour compared with soft/medium-vs-hard hardness, hardness was significantly the more discriminant test (pooled WMD -3.37, 95% CI -3.60 to -3.14; ungraded). Source: Results > Statistical analysis for pooled CFU's outcomes; Fig. 4d · same question in other reviews | WMD -3.369 [-3.595, -3.143] | 2 studies | Ungraded |
Included primary studies 8
Open as a trial list| Study | Also included by | Outcomes it informs here | Trial PICO | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beighton 1993 Classroom aeroallergen exposure in Arkansas head start centers. PMID:18450122 | this review only | not stated | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |
| Beighton 1993 A microbiological study of primary root-caries lesions with different treatment needs. PMID:8450122 | this review only | Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |
| Bjorndal 1997 A clinical and microbiological study of deep carious lesions during stepwise excavation using long treatment intervals. PMID:9353579 | this review only | Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |
| Bonecker 2003 Mutans streptococci and lactobacilli in carious dentine before and after Atraumatic Restorative Treatment. PMID:12878025 | this review only | Discriminant power for caries severity: effect size (f) for microbial load (log10 CFU) between lesion categories | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |
| Lula 2011 Partial caries removal in primary teeth: association of clinical parameters with microbiological status. PMID:21576960 | this review only | Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |
| Lynch 1994 A comparison of primary root caries lesions classified according to colour. PMID:8069878 | this review only | not stated | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |
| Maltz 2002 A clinical, microbiologic, and radiographic study of deep caries lesions after incomplete caries removal. PMID:11890029 | this review only | Discriminant power for caries severity: mean difference in log10 CFU (microbial load) between lesion categories | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |
| Orhan 2008 A clinical and microbiological comparative study of deep carious lesion treatment in deciduous and young permanent molars. PMID:18548292 | this review only | not stated | not extracted yet | not extracted yet |