SynthesisEuropean archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry2025
Does breastfeeding increase the risk of early childhood caries (ECC)? A systematic review.
Synthesis in European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Association of co-sleeping and bed sharing practices with early childhood caries in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry · 2026Pooled it
- Breastfeeding and Early Childhood Dental Caries: Evidence from Birth Cohort Studies in Australia and Brazil.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Developmental ecology of the infant oral ecosystem: a framework for early childhood caries.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Review
- Association Between Infant-Feeding Practices and Early Childhood Caries: A Clinical and Epidemiological Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The first 1,000 days of life and early childhood caries: closing the global data gap.Frontiers in oral health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo review the current evidence on the association of breastfeeding during the first years of life with the development of Early Childhood Caries (ECC). MATERIALS AND
methodsA systematic review of literature was conducted in June 2019 and again in March 2024 at the following Databases: Pub Med, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, Google Scholar, for studies reporting on children aged up to 71 months investigating breastfeeding duration/cessation and presence of caries at the examination. Prospective Cohort studies were included in the review. The systematic review was conducted according to PRISMA statement guidelines.
resultsOf the 4894 papers identified, the data extraction protocol led to 8 studies for further review. Assessment of Risk of Bias was made using the ROBINS-E tool. Six studies were characterized as high risk of bias, one characterized with some concerns and one with low risk of bias. Breastfeeding for 6-12 months has a protective effect against ECC. There is no association between breastfeeding and ECC for the ages 12-24 months; however, depending on the frequency or when combined with increased sugar consumption, it can have an impact on dental caries prevalence. Beyond 24 months, breastfeeding was associated with increased ECC prevalence.
conclusionsBased on the studies included in this review and within their limitations, breastfeeding up to 2 years of age does not increase ECC risk, but after 2 years of age breastfeeding is associated with increased risk of ECC. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The protocol for this systematic review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42020179773).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.