Permanent dental development radiographically assessed in children and adolescents with down syndrome - systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective

To systematically revisit the existing scientific literature and investigate whether Down syndrome can affect the chronology of dental development in children and adolescents.

Design

A systematic literature review based on the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Manual for Evidence Synthesis was developed and registered in The International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO, protocol: CRD #42024531685). The research protocol was designed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) and deposited in Zenodo repository (doi: 10.5281/zenodo.14993171). The strategic search was conducted in PubMed, LILACS, Scopus, SciELO, OATD and Open Grey. Risk of bias was assessed according to the JBI critical appraisal tool, while The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) tool was used to assess the certainty of evidence. Subgroup meta-analyses were performed based on sex and dental age estimation method.

Results

Ten eligible studies were detected after 1864 initially screened. Standardized mean differences (SMD) between syndromic and non-syndromic individuals were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Differences between chronological and estimated ages were negligible (p > 0.05) for both males and females. Nolla’s dental age estimation method was slightly more conservative and consistent than Demirjian’s (p > 0.05). Heterogeneity (I²) was ≤ 3 %.

Conclusion

Down syndrome does not seem to significantly affect dental development of children and adolescents with and without Down syndrome when assessed radiographically. Caution is advised since the certainty of evidence of observational studies is naturally low.