SYSTEMATIC REVIEW WITH A META-ANALYSIS OF THE EFFICACY OF SUPERVISED TOOTHBRUSHING ON CARIES PREVENTION AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

Dental caries among children is a public health problem worldwide and proper toothbrushing is an important preventive strategy.  In this study, we aimed to compare the efficacy of supervised toothbrushing (STB) with unsupervised tooth brushing (control group) to prevent caries among primary school children by conducting a systematic review with a meta-analysis in order to inform efforts to prevent caries in the study population.  We searched for studies that aimed to compare the efficacy of STB with a control group to prevent caries among primary school children (aged 5-12 years).  A total of 10 studies were included in this systematic review.  A meta-analysis was performed on 6 of these 10 studies.  The total number of systematic review subjects was 3,905: 1,943 in STB groups and 1,962 in control groups.  The total meta-analysis study population consisted of 3,014 subjects: 1,504 in STB groups and 1,510 in control groups.  The systematic review revealed STB did not significantly reduce caries among study subjects compared to controls.  The meta-analysis also revealed STB did not significantly reduce caries among study subjects compared to controls (risk ratio = 0.92; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.84-1.01; p-value >0.05).  In summary, we found no significant benefit of STB among study subjects to prevent caries.  We conclude other caries prevention methods should be employed in the study population to prevent caries.  Further studies are needed to determine why STB was ineffective in preventing caries in the study population and what methods can be used to correct this.