Global and regional estimates of dental pain among children and adolescents-systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: We aimed to evaluate the pooled prevalence of dental pain amongst children and adolescents. METHODS: Studies conducted in children and adolescents up to18 years of age and where prevalence of dental is reported or calculated were included. Search was performed in four major databases from inception to June 1st, 2019. Prevalence estimate at the maximal recall for the dental pain for the individual study was used to calculate the overall pooled estimate. RESULTS: The prevalence of dental pain ranged from 1.33 to 87.8% in the included publications for quantitative synthesis (n = 97). More than half of the publications reported the lifetime prevalence of dental pain (n = 51) while few studies reported the current prevalence of dental pain (n = 3) and only one study evaluated the dental pain in the past one week. Heterogeneity was high among the included publications (Q = 49,063.12; P < 0.001; df = 96 and I2 = 99.8; P < 0.001). Overall pooled prevalence of dental pain was 32.7 (CI = 29.6-35.9). No difference was seen with respect to the trends in prevalence of dental pain (Coefficient: 0.005; 95% CI - 0.001-0.011; P-value: 0.101). CONCLUSION: Two out of ten children below five years, four out of ten children between 6 and 12 years and three out of ten adolescents between 13 and 18 years would have experienced pain in the past. Overall, three out of ten children or adolescents might have experienced dental pain in the past. There was no difference in the pain prevalence between male and females. Studies from Africa reported highest pooled prevalence (50.1%) with least being from Australia (20.7%). Studies from India (40.4%), China (41.3%) and Iran (42.6%) reported high pooled prevalence estimates of dental pain.

A reliability generalization meta-analysis of Child Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (C - OIDP) questionnaire.

AIM: To evaluate the cumulative estimates of reliability and conduct reliability generalization meta-analysis of Cronbach's alpha for the Child Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (C-OIDP) questionnaire. METHODOLOGY: Systematic search of four databases from inception to November 30th, 2019 was performed. Studies that reported Cronbach alpha for the C-OIDP were included. Cronbach's alpha for each publication was used for the meta-analysis. I2 and Q statistics were calculated to assess heterogeneity. Meta-analysis was performed using a random-effects model to derive a pooled estimate of Cronbach's alpha. RESULTS: Out of 944 publications, data extraction was done from 33 publications after exclusion. The age range among the included publication was from 6 to 19 years. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.53 to 0.9. Majority of the publications (n = 21) reported alpha above the benchmark (0.7 and above). Only two publications used condition-specific C-OIDP questionnaires. Twelve publications used self-administered child-OIDP questionnaires. Most of the studies were at a low risk of bias (n = 29). The cumulative alpha was higher in publications with a low ROB (α = 0.74) than a moderate ROB (α = 0.65) The cumulative alpha was 0.73 (SE = 0.02) with a high heterogeneity among the included publications (I2 = 99.28% and Q = 2048.68; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Overall, the RG estimate of Cronbach's alpha for C-OIDP was above the widely accepted benchmark.

Global and regional estimates of the prevalence of root caries - Systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: To evaluate the pooled prevalence of root caries through a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: A keyword search was done in Scopus, Pubmed and CINAHL databases using all the synonyms of root caries in the published literature (till January 1st, 2018). The search was supplemented with standard Boolean operators and other keywords like prevalence, epidemiology in the title, abstract and MeSH terms. Data was extracted and exported to Covidence software for screening and removal of duplicates. RESULTS: The search revealed a total of 492 documents from Scopus (n = 95), Pubmed (n = 220) and CINAHL (n = 177). Random effects model was used as there was a high degree of heterogeneity was seen among the studies published (I2 = 99.62%). A total of 74 publications were included in the analysis of the pooled prevalence of root caries which yielded a prevalence of 41.5 (36.9-46.1). CONCLUSION: Root caries is a significant problem, and four out of ten adults might be affected.

Effect of Aloe vera, chlorine dioxide, and chlorhexidine mouth rinses on plaque and gingivitis: A randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of Aloe vera, chlorine dioxide, and chlorhexidine mouth rinses on plaque and gingivitis in orthodontic treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A randomized single-center, single-blind, parallel group, controlled trial was conducted among 90 subjects undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment. The subjects were randomly divided into one of the three study groups (Aloe vera, chlorhexidine, chlorine dioxide). Plaque and gingivitis were assessed using modified Silness and Loe Plaque Index and Gingival Index at baseline and at follow-up after 15 days. Paired t-test and ANOVA with post hoc Dunnett test were used. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 85 participants completed the study; among them, 40 were male and 45 were female. There was significant reduction in mean plaque and gingival scores in all the 3 groups at follow-up when compared to baseline. A significantly higher reduction (plaque and gingival scores) was found in chlorhexidine when compared with the Aloe vera group. However, no significant difference was seen between chlorhexidine and chlorine dioxide with respect to mean reduction in plaque and gingival scores. CONCLUSION: Chlorine dioxide can be a suitable and economical alternative for chlorhexidine. Further long-term studies are recommended for evaluating their effectiveness.