Motivational Interviewing Interventions for Dental Caries in Children: A Review of Systematic Reviews

Abstract

The objective is to present evidence through umbrella review format about motivational intervention (MI) effectiveness in early childhood caries (ECC). A comprehensive search was done utilizing three databases till March 2026 for a systematic review (SR) of randomized controlled trials. The following PICO was used for search strategy and eligibility criteria: population was mother–child dyads; intervention included MI principles; comparators were any other comparator; the outcome was ECC. AMSTAR-2 was used to judge the quality of included SRs. Five SRs were included. The total sample size was 4577 subjects after correcting for overlapping studies. Four SRs showed a significant reduction in dental caries in children when MI was used and compared to a control and one showed a reduction, but not statistically significant. The overall confidence in the included SRs was mostly moderate. In conclusion MI interventions showed promising effects; however, effectiveness may vary by patient, setting, and intervention characteristics.