AIM: The aim was to examine the association between moderate to late preterm birth and the prevalence of early childhood caries.

METHODS: We searched the PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Trials Register) databases up to February 28, 2020. Two independent reviewers screened the papers for relevance, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. A random effects meta-analysis was performed to pool the prevalence of early childhood caries by gestational age.

RESULTS: The authors identified 14 studies covering 210,691 children. They were published from 2007-2020 and included birth cohorts, cross-sectional, register-based and case-control studies. We assessed eight of them as having low or moderate risk of bias. The median caries prevalence was 48.8% among children born moderate to late preterm compared to 20.5% for those born full term. The pooled overall odds ratio was 1.48 (95% confidence interval 1.16-1.89; p<0.001). The certainty of this finding was low due to heterogeneity and inconsistencies across the studies.

CONCLUSION: This systematic review and meta-analysis displayed a significantly higher prevalence of early childhood caries in children born moderate to late preterm compared to full term children. The finding suggests that the gestational age should be collected as a risk factor in the paediatric dental records.