JDR clinical and translational research
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease that quickly reached pandemic levels. Over 5 million COVID-19 cases and approximately 330,000 deaths have been recorded worldwide. Transmission is primarily spread through direct, indirect (through contaminated objects or surfaces), or close contact with infected people via respiratory droplets, the mouth, and/or nose secretions. Health care professionals (HCPs), including dental HCPs, are recognized to be at considerably high risk for infection due to the close proximity to patients and aerosol-generating procedures. During pregnancy, HCPs may be at even higher risk since pregnancy substantially increases the susceptibility to infectious diseases. ⋯ Dental and health care professionals can use the information in this review to improve their awareness of COVID-19 risks, signs, and symptoms and the associated effects on the health of pregnant health care professionals and their unborn/newborn children.
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This systematic review aimed to assess the association between food and drink consumption around bedtime-specifically, food and drinks containing free sugars-and the risk of dental caries in children. Five electronic databases were searched (PubMed, Ovid Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus) to identify studies that investigated any relationship between food and drink around bedtime and dental caries in 3- to 16-y-old children. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality domain guidelines were used to assess the quality of the individual studies, while GRADE guidelines assessed the quality of studies based on the body of evidence. ⋯ Knowledge Transfer Statement: This is the first systematic review of the evidence assessing the association between caries risk in children and the consumption of food or drinks at bedtime-specifically, foods and drinks containing free sugars. Although the data showed a consistent positive association, the quality of evidence was very low. This means that the current recommendation to restrict food and drinks containing free sugars before bedtime in children, while based on a sound physiologic premise, is supported only by very low-quality published evidence as measured by GRADE guidelines.