Scrolling Through Risk: The Overlooked Oral Health Cost of the Digital Lifestyle

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the evidence of oral-health outcomes of daily screen exposure in various age groups of children, adolescents, and adults around the globe.

A detailed search of PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane CENTRAL was performed in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 and MOOSE recommendations up to September 2025. The inclusion criteria were based on a Population Exposure Comparator Outcome (PICO) framework, evaluating screen time exposure (>2 h/day) relative to an outcome measure (oral health) that included dental caries, DMFT, plaque index, and frequency of brushing. AXIS and Newcastle--Ottawa scale (NOS) were used to extract data and assess the risk of bias. A DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model was used for quantitative synthesis.

A total of 32 studies were included (n = 46,812). A significantly higher risk of dental caries (pooled odds ratio [OR] = 1.42; 95% CI 1.201.69), greater DMFT scores (SMD = 0.31; 95% CI 0.100.53) and less frequent brushing were linked to high screen exposure (>2 h/day). The test of the funnel plot showed no major publication bias.

Due to excess exposure to the screens, a correlation was found between poor oral hygiene behavior and increased prevalence of dental caries. Proposed mechanistic pathways include poor nutrition, poor sleep, and poor salivation. This underscores the need to integrate digital behavior counseling into preventive dentistry and to undertake longitudinal studies employing objective measures of screen time.