Prevalence of Caries among School Children in Saudi Arabia: A Meta-Analysis

INTRODUCTION: Children's dental health has become the primary concern, because of the increase in the prevalence of caries amongst school children in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to assess the prevalence and severity of dental caries among school children in Saudi Arabia. METHOD: A systematic search of Scopus, ISI Web of Science, EMBASE, Saudi digital library, Google Scholar, and MEDLINE via Ovid for cross-sectional studies with healthy participants between 5and –15 years. Two authors independently extracted the prevalence of caries. With 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using a random-effects model, we calculated caries prevalence. RESULTS: Dental caries prevalence data were extracted from 18 cross-sectional studies (n = 56,327 children). The pooled estimate for the caries prevalence among 5–7 years' children was 84% (95% CI: 0.81–0.87%; I(2) = 91%) while among 12–15 years' children was 72% (95% CI: 0.63–0.79; I(2) = 96.2%). Discussion. In this systematic review, the summary estimate of the prevalence of dental caries among children of 5–7 years and 12–15 years were 84% and 72%, respectively. Further research is required to identify approaches for preventing and treating dental caries in schoolchildren.