Relationship between preterm birth and developmental defects of enamel: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

The World Health Organization determined that preterm birth takes place when a baby is born alive before 37 weeks of pregnancy. There are sub-categories of preterm birth based on gestational age, in which the baby is considered extremely preterm, very preterm, and moderate to late preterm when the birth occurs <28 weeks, from 28 to 32 weeks and between 32 and 37 weeks, respectively. It is estimated that about 15 million babies are preterm every year and that approximately 1 million children die each year due to preterm birth complications. 1 These complications may include respiratory distress syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, intraventricular bleeding, necrotising enterocolitis, retinopathy of prematurity, risk of infection and persistent ductus arteriousus. 2 Commonly reported oral complications of preterm birth include notching of the alveolar ridge, palatal grooving, high arched palate, dental crossbite, and palatal asymmetry. 3

Molar-incisor hypomineralization: an umbrella review

“…Regarding language restriction, two systematics reviews failed to report this characteristic [6,23], seven had language restrictions [4,5,7,12,14,15,24], and the remaining had no language restrictions [3,10,11,13,17,25,26]. There were even two systematic reviews that mentioned no language restriction were set, and studies in other languages than English or German were translated by native speakers [8,9].…”

“…Because MIH is a qualitative developmental defect of enamel, multiple sub-topics in the systematic reviews were addressed. For example, the included systematic reviews addressed: aetiology [3,6,10,14,17,23], prevalence [4,13,24], diagnosis [4], mechanical and chemical characteristic of enamel in MIH [9], the association between MIH and dental caries [5], and treatment [7,8,12,25,26]. A particular study aimed to review, if hypomineralization was a predictor of MIH [15].…”

“…None of the included systematic reviews satisfied entirely the AMSTAR 2 Criteria (Table 2). Overall, nine presented moderate quality [6][7][8]10,11,[13][14][15]25] and seven were assessed as having critically low quality [4,5,9,12,23,24,26].…”

“…Six systematic reviews addressed the aetiology of MIH [3,6,10,14,17,23], among which three computed meta-analyses where several parameters were evaluated. Overall, multiple aetiological factors associated with MIH were reported on and can be divided according to pre-, peri-and postnatal periods.…”

“…MIH is defined as a qualitative developmental defect of enamel in children and adolescents, affecting at least one PFM with or without involvement of the incisors [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. MIH is clinically characterized by more or less well-defined opacities that vary in size and can be discoloured from white to yellow-brownish [5,10,11,15].…”