ReviewFrontiers in dental medicine2025
Oral hygiene and caries experience in children with down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Frontiers in dental medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Dental anomalies and dental age in children with down syndrome: a comparative retrospective study with healthy controls.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Periodontitis and Alzheimer's disease, common pathways in down syndrome.Frontiers in dental medicine · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Children with Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at increased risk for oral health problems due to anatomical, behavioral, and socioeconomic factors. However, evidence on their caries experience and oral hygiene remains inconsistent. This study systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed case-control and cross-sectional studies comparing oral health indices in children with DS or ASD to neurotypical peers. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar using a standardized strategy. Eligible studies included children aged 0-18 years. Pooled mean differences (MD) in Plaque Index (PI), Gingival Index (GI), DMFT (decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth), dmft (primary teeth), and Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated in R using meta and metafor packages. Results: Twenty-four studies were included (527 children with DS, 1,221 with ASD, 1,875 controls). For PI, children with DS had MD = 0.53 (95% CI: -0.13-1.18; Conclusions: Children with DS and ASD showed no consistent differences in PI, GI, DMFT, dmft, or OHI-S scores compared to neurotypical peers. Public health strategies should focus on inclusive oral health education, provider training, and equitable access to dental services to improve outcomes for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD420251155866, identifier: CRD420251155866.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.