Oral Health Interventions in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Interventional Studies.

This large review looked at different ways to help autistic children improve their teeth and gum health. Researchers studied 27 different studies involving nearly 2,000 children. They found that visual methods, especially videos, work really well for teaching oral hygiene. When parents were involved in the training, children showed better tooth brushing and healthier gums. Video-based teaching was more effective than just talking or using pictures alone.

This systematic review and meta-analysis examined oral health interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), analyzing 27 studies with 1,918 participants. The research evaluated educational approaches (visual, verbal, booklet/leaflet) and procedural interventions, measuring outcomes using standardized oral health indices. Results demonstrated significant improvements across all measured outcomes: plaque index (PI), Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), and gingival index (GI). Video-based interventions showed particularly strong effectiveness for plaque reduction.

The findings suggest that visual pedagogy, especially video interventions combined with parental involvement, represents an effective approach for improving oral health outcomes in children with ASD, outperforming traditional verbal or picture-based methods.

Video-based oral hygiene education should be prioritized in clinical practice for children with ASD. Traditional verbal-only approaches may be less effective. Incorporating parental training components enhances intervention success. Visual learning strategies align with common ASD learning preferences and should be standard in oral health programs.

The abstract does not specify study heterogeneity levels, intervention duration, follow-up periods, or potential publication bias assessment. Sample sizes of individual studies and participant age ranges are not reported, limiting interpretation of generalizability.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit a higher prevalence of oral health diseases. These oral health issues significantly impair quality of life and increase caregiver burden. Despite emerging interventions like specialized behavioral guidance and caregiver training, a comprehensive evaluation of their effectiveness remains absent. This systematic review and meta-analysis was designed to pool the effectiveness of Oral health interventions in children with ASD.

In this systematic review, some international databases, including PubMed, ISI/WOS, CENTRAL, and Scopus, were searched via appropriate keywords until January 1, 2025. All clinical trials that assessed the effect of interventions on oral health indices including Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), plaque index (PI), and gingival index (GI) without any language or time restrictions were included in the study. Search strategy process, screening, data extraction, and quality assessment were performed by two experts independently. Heterogeneity between studies was assessed using Iand Q-Cochrane test.

Random effect meta-analysis was performed to pool the standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Overall, 27 studies with 1918 participants were included in this study. Interventions are categorized into the educational (visual, verbal, booklet/leaflet) and procedural approaches. Random effect meta-analysis showed significant improvements for PI (SMD = -0.73, 95% CI: [-1.02 to -0.44]) and OHI-S (SMD = -1.44, 95% CI: [-2.79 to -0.08]), with video interventions notably effective for PI (SMD = -0.69, 95% CI: [-1.2 to -0.14]).

The GI index also improved (SMD = -0.74, 95% CI: [-1.34 to -0.14]). Visual pedagogy, particularly videos, and parental involvement significantly improved oral health in children with ASD. Video-based interventions should be added to traditional methods such as verbal or picture-based approaches to improve oral health interventions in ASD.