ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To carry out a systematic review with meta-analysis of prevalence of caries in Latin America and Caribbean children considering studies performed in this new century. METHODS: Two reviewers searched PubMed, Embase, LILACS and governmental databases through May 2016 to identify papers published in English, Portuguese or Spanish. Studies in those countries performed with 5-6 or 11-13 year-old children and that presented separate prevalence figures from primary and permanent teeth were selected. We performed a descriptive analysis of studies and meta-analysis to calculate the overall prevalence and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) in both primary and permanent teeth. We also analyzed the trends of prevalence of caries through the years and influence of other variables on caries prevalence using multilevel analysis. RESULTS: Seventy-five studies were included from the 1,306 articles initially retrieved. The meta-analysis of caries prevalence grouped for Latin American and the Caribbean countries were highly different from Brazil and other investigated countries for primary teeth (5-6 years-old-Brazil: 0.52, other countries:0.70) and permanent teeth (11-12 years-old-Brazil: 0.56, other countries: 0.63). For studies conducted only in Brazil the prevalence was significant lower for primary but not for permanent teeth. In Brazil, a downward trend of caries prevalence was observed in 11-13-year-old children. CONCLUSION: Despite the decline of caries prevalence in permanent teeth, mainly in Brazil, the disease still affects more than half of the children population in Latin American and Caribbean countries in the 21st Century.