Dental crowding as a caries risk factor: A systematic review

Introduction
The association between dental crowding and dental caries has long been accepted because of increased food accumulation and plaque retention in areas ofcrowding. The aim of this review was to evaluate this potential causal relationship systematically.

Methods
Six electronic databases were accessed, supplemented by manual searching of
the references of the relevant retrieved articles, peer-reviewed orthodontic journals, and gray literature. Search terms included caries, decay, crowding, and irregularity. Non-English articles were excluded from the review in the study-selection stage. Data extraction and evaluation of primary studies were performed independently by 2 reviewers.

Results
The initial search retrieved 6914 citations. However, only 18 articles met the inclusion criteria. The qualitative systematic review included 8 studies,
with articles of low or moderate quality. No association between crowding and caries was reported in 4 studies, a significant negative correlation was found in 2 studies, 1 study showed a direct and significant relationship, and another study showed a positive association in the mandibular anterior region but an inverse correlation in the maxillary posterior region.

Conclusions
To date, there are no high-quality studies to resolve the possible association between dental crowding and caries; further high-quality longitudinal studies are needed to clarify this relationship.

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This article was researched by:

Hend Salah Hafez

Affiliations

• Researcher, Department of Orthodontics, Oral and Dental Research
  Division, National Research Center, Giza, Egypt; member, International Clinical
  Research Group, Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Faculty
  of Oral and Dental Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

Sherif Mohamed Shaarawy
 

 Affiliations

• Orthodontic resident, International Orthodontic Program, Cairo
  University, Cairo, Egypt

 Ahmed Awadh Al-Sakiti

 Affiliations

• Orthodontic resident, International Orthodontic Program, Cairo
  University, Cairo, Egypt

Yehya Ahmed Mostafa