title: Is dental caries experience increased in HIV-infected children and adolescents? A meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To undertake a systematic review to assess if HIV-infected children and adolescents have an increased dental caries experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  A search of MEDLINE, BIREME, EMBASE, GOOGLE SCHOLAR, SIGLE (Grey Literature) and reference lists of included studies was carried out. To be eligible the studies had to present HIV-infected and non-infected children/adolescents between 0-18 years old. To assess the methodological quality, the studies were categorized in scores from 'A' to 'C'. To perform a meta-analysis a random effect model was used with 95% confidence intervals and two distinct sub-group analyses were carried out in terms of caries progression: data for cavitated and non-cavitated lesions (sub-group 1) and data only for cavitated lesions (sub-group 2).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five studies fulfilled the selection criteria. Four studies (two ranked A and two B in the quality assessment) revealed higher caries scores in primary teeth in the HIV-infected patients with mean dmft/dmfs scores of 3.8-4.1/7.8-11.0 compared to the control group 1.5-2.4/3.4-5.1. No differences in caries index were found for permanent dentition. The meta-analysis excluded caries data of permanent teeth and showed a significant association between caries experience in primary dentition and HIV infection considering cavitated and non-cavitated lesions (OR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.48-3.68) or only cavitated lesions (OR = 2.98, 95% CI = 1.59-5.59).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Evidence exists that suggests HIV-infected children/adolescents have an increased caries experience in primary dentition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
authors.forename: Cristiana Aroeira Guimarães Rosa
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Patricia Nivoloni
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Tannure
authors.forename: Ivete Pomarico Ribeiro
authors.initials: IP
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Lucianne Cople
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Maia
authors.forename: Maristela Barbosa
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Portela
authors.forename: Gloria Fernanda B de A
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Castro
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous / Q000473:pathology
keywords: HIV infections; child; dental caries