Caries Prevention: Living Overview Of The Evidence (L-OVE)

Objectives: Identify and organize all existing evidence in Epistemonikos about interventions for caries prevention, and keep it continuously updated.
Methods: A broad search of systematic reviews (SRs) was performed in Epistemonikos, about the topic "caries prevention", without restriction for language or publication year of the articles. Two people evaluated each of the potentially eligible SRs, using Epistemonikos Collaboratron tool, and in case of discrepancies, a third investigator was responsible for resolving them.
All SRs were organized according to 30 PICOt questions, considering dentition type (primary or permanent), related to measures for the prevention of caries (sealants, infiltrants, among others). For each question, with at least one SR available, a matrix of evidence or dynamic table that shows all the SRs and the primary studies included in each of them, was created.
The set of evidence for each question is currently being compiled with Living FRISBEES method or Epistemonikos summary, a structured summary that follows a pre-established format that includes key messages, synthesis of the evidence set, meta-analysis, GRADE tables, and other considerations for decision-making.
Results: We found 814 possible SRs with the search strategy implemented, but 330 SR were selected, which were grouped according to the type of preventive intervention for caries management, through the L-OVE platform. Finally, 21 matrices of evidence were prepared, with the primary studies found for each question, most of them randomized clinical trials.
In 9 of the 30 PICOt questions selected to study preventive interventions for caries management, we did not find published SRs, which suggests evaluating new evidence in the future.
To continue expanding this clinical evidence database, Epistemonikos summaries of the remaining questions will be developed and the resulting information will be considered for the elaboration of clinical guidelines.
Conclusions: We have managed to synthesize a large volume of evidence on different preventive measures for caries disease, through novel methods based on the Epistemonikos project. The new evidence about this important topic for dental research will be kept constantly updated. Currently, our findings are being shared with the Evidence Based Dentistry Department of the American Dental Association.