Efficacy of probiotics against dental caries in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Dental caries causes serious consequences and the financial burden of society especially in children with high morbidity rate. Here we carried out a meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the efficacy of probiotics against dental caries in children. Forty-three RCTs were eligible for this meta-analysis after searching the PubMed, Cochrane and Web of Science from the inception through October 2021. Pooled estimates demonstrated that treatment with probiotics significantly reduced noncavitated (dicdas2–6mft) (SMD = −0.18, 95% CI: −0.3 to −0.06, p = 0.002) and cavitated (dicdas5–6mft) carious lesions in children (SMD = −0.32, 95% CI: −0.5 to 0.14, p = 0.0004). Probiotics also reduced prevalence of noncavitated (dicdas2–6mft) carious lesions (RR = 0.8, 95% CI: 0.67 to–0.97, p = 0.02). Salivary Streptococcus mutans was declined after intervention (SMD = −1.17, 95% CI: −1.85 to −0.5, p = 0.0007), while Lactobacillus counts were upregulated (SMD = 1.19, 95% CI: 0.46–1.92, p = 0.001). However, no significant effects in total bacteria counts and salivary pH were observed. Our findings suggest that probiotics especially Lactobacillus could be a promising therapeutic strategy for clinical applications in children dental caries.

Keywords:

• Dental caries
• probiotics
• children
• Streptococcus mutans
• Lactobacillus
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgements

We express our appreciation to the participants of this study.

Disclosure statement

None of the authors had any personal or financial conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LY20H180010) and Wenzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (WMSTB) (Y20180142).