A Meta-Analysis And Systematic Review Evaluating Cavities And Their Incidence In Indian Permanent Teeth

Abstract

Objectives: To use a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the combined prevalence of dental caries in the Indian population.

Methodology: To find information about dental caries in the Indian population, a keyword search was done using pertinent keywords in the PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Cochrane, and Scopus databases. Standard Boolean operators were used in the search criteria, which included English-language manuscripts published between March 2015 and March 2025. Two researchers independently reviewed the studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria, and the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale was used to evaluate their quality.  

Results:
Seventy of the 253 articles that were found after screening satisfied the inclusion criteria and were used to create the meta-analysis. The overall dental caries prevalence was 54.16% (CI: 0.4966–0.5866), whereas the age-specific prevalence was 52% among individuals aged 3–18 and 62% among those aged over 18 (P < 0.0001).

Conclusions: In addition to an average prevalence of 54.16%, dental caries prevalence rates vary significantly by age, dentition, geographic location, and diagnostic parameters.