SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Dent. Med.
Sec. Pediatric Dentistry
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdmed.2025.1639572
This article is part of the Research TopicNext-Generation Pediatric Dentistry: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Diagnosis and Patient CareView all articles
Bridging Smiles: AI-driven dental health awareness for the Next Gen-A Systematic Review
Provisionally accepted- AB Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, India
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: This systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile applications in improving oral health knowledge, oral hygiene behaviours, plaque, and gingival indices in children. Methods: The inclusion criteria were defined using the PICOS framework. The population comprised children aged 4 to 16 years. The intervention included studies utilizing game-based teaching methods for oral health education, such as serious games, interactive games, or other digital and non-digital educational games. Comparators involved alternative interventions, conventional teaching approaches, or control conditions. Eligible outcomes included measures of oral hygiene behaviours, plaque and gingival indices. 5 Randomized controlled trials, 3 pilot studies and 1 cross-sectional study were considered for inclusion after going through a total of 163 articles. Reviews and usability test articles were excluded from the study. A systematic search was completed using keywords alongside thesaurus and MeSH terms on PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Web of Science databases from 2015 to 2025. This review was conducted with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist, using the specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Risk of Bias was assessed using the QUADAS-2 tool. All results were analyzed and summarized into general and specific categories. Results: Nine randomized controlled trials involving children aged 2 to 19 years were included. Mobile applications used ranged from brushing timers and virtual games to educational videos and messaging platforms. Most interventions reported improvements in oral health knowledge, hygiene behaviours, and plaque reduction. Significant clinical improvements were observed in several studies, particularly those incorporating gamification or theory-based behavioural strategies. Discussion: Mobile-based interventions showed promising results in enhancing oral health outcomes among children. Gamified and interactive applications were especially effective in increasing motivation and engagement. Parental involvement and age-specific tailoring appeared to influence intervention effectiveness. Conclusion: Mobile health applications have the potential to support pediatric oral health promotion through improved knowledge, behaviour, and clinical outcomes. While the evidence is encouraging, further standardized, high-quality research is needed to confirm long-term effectiveness and guide widespread implementation.
Keywords: Oral Health, Children, game-based teaching, serious games, interactive games, Education
Received: 02 Jun 2025; Accepted: 01 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sharma, Das, Bhandary and Nayak. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Srikala Bhandary, docsrikala@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.