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Review
. 2021 Jun 10;11(3):256-265.
doi: 10.4103/jispcd.JISPCD_42_21. eCollection 2021 May-Jun.

Prevalence of Dental Caries in the Indian Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Pragya Pandey  1 , Tanya Nandkeoliar  2 , A P Tikku  1 , Diksha Singh  3 , Manish Kumar Singh  4
Affiliations
Review

Prevalence of Dental Caries in the Indian Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Pragya Pandey et al. J Int Soc Prev Community Dent. .

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the pooled prevalence of dental caries among Indian population through systematic review and meta-analysis.

Materials and methods: A keyword search was conducted in PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Cochrane, and Scopus databases using relevant key words to extract the data pertaining to dental caries in Indian population. The search criteria included manuscripts published in English language from March 2009 to March 2019 and employed standard Boolean operators. The studies which met the inclusion criteria were independently reviewed by two researchers and their quality was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The overall prevalence was deduced using the random effects model with prime focus given to the site of anatomical origin. R software version 3.5.2. was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Post screening, out of the 253 articles identified, 70 met the inclusion criteria and were used to generate the meta-analysis. Among them, only few studies investigated the prevalence of root caries (n = 1). Overall prevalence of dental caries was 54.16% (CI: 0.4966-0.5866), whereas age-specific prevalence was 62% in patients above 18 years and 52% among 3-18 years of age (P < 0.0001). Maximum overall prevalence was noted in mixed dentition (58%). Region wise prevalence was more in western India (72%). Use of decayed, missed, and filled teeth as diagnostic criteria for early childhood caries was only 29%.

Conclusions: Besides an overall prevalence of 54.16%, there exists a remarkable variation in dental caries prevalence rates as per age, diagnostic criteria, dentition, and geographical region. Furthermore, research should be focused on the prevalence of anatomical site specific caries as well.

Keywords: DMFT; Dental caries; India; prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interests to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the eligibility criteria as per PRISMA
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geographical distribution pattern of the 70 studies included in the meta-analysis on prevalence of dental caries
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forest plot depicting study specific prevalence (mean and 95% CI) for dental caries in Indian population
Figure 4
Figure 4
Forest plot depicting specific age-group prevalence (mean and 95% CI) for dental caries in Indian population
Figure 5
Figure 5
Funnel plot for all studies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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