Impact of diet on the oral health of children and adolescents: a data mining analysis

Abstract

The aims were to describe and assess, through a data mining analysis, the worldwide scientific literature on the impact of diet on the oral health of children and adolescents. Searches were performed in the Medline/PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Web of Science. Observational studies that evaluated the influence of children's and adolescents' diet on oral outcomes were included, while studies with preventive treatments, self-examination, studies only with adults or elderly people, and studies unavailable in full were excluded. The primary data obtained were: year, country, type of study, age group, diet (consistency, composition, consumption time, and exposure frequency), outcomes (caries, biofilm, or periodontal disease), and the association (positive, null or negative) between diet and the outcomes. The analyses were performed in the VantagePoint™ and SPSS software. A total of 1330 studies were identified, of which 227 were selected. These studies were published from 1980-2021, with the most significant number developed in Brazil (n=26). Most studies were cross-sectional (n=139), performed only with children (n=141), and assessed caries (n=193). The consistency of the diet did not impact the occurrence of these conditions. We observed positive associations between caries and sugars/sweets (n=118), snacks (n=40), night dietary habits (n=30), and exposures ≥3×/day (n=11). Therefore, the studies indicated that diet consistency did not impact oral health, but sugars/sweets, snacks, night dietary habits, and frequent exposures were positively associated with caries.