Knowledge of dental practitioners regarding Molar incisor hypo-mineralization: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Molar incisor hypo-mineralization (MIH) is a qualitative developmental enamel defect involving one or more molars that may affects the incisors simultaneously. The present study examines the awareness of dentists regarding to MIH and compiles the existing studies in the form of a systematic review and meta-analysis. The research was conducted in the form of a secondary study, with a systematic search of texts until March 2026 in the databases of Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed. Articles were selected based on eligibility criteria and finally the search results were reported in the PRISMA chart. The quality of the studies was assessed based on the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist. The extracted information was entered in 18 Stata software. Heterogeneity was assessed using Q-Cochran square test, 12statistic. Egger tests were used to detect diffusion bias. After removing the duplicate articles and checking the titles, abstracts and full texts of the articles, 20 articles were subjected to quality assessment. Finally, 18 articles were entered into meta-analysis According to statistical results, the awareness of all dental practitioners regarding the recognition of MIH and prevalence of MIH was 79% (95% confidence interval [CI]:0.71–0.86) and 23% (95%CI: 0.17–0.30) respectively. The awareness of all practitioners about etiologic factors of MIH such as “genetics” 59%(95%CI:0.49–0.69), “chronic diseases"59% (95%CI:0.47–0.71), “acute diseases” 52%(95%CI:0.43–0.62), “antibiotic use” 51%(95%CI0.42-0.61), “environmental contaminations” 37% (95%CI:0.28–0.45) and “fluoride exposure” 15%(95%CI:0.10–0.21) were assessed. The results of the present study showed that the knowledge of different practitioners in diagnosis, prevalence and etiology of MIH is variable.