TABLE 15.

Body of evidence summary on breakfast cereals and dental caries

Evidence statement and components	Grade	Rating	Notes
Consumption of breakfast cereals by children is not associated with increased risk of dental caries	B	—	Body of evidence can be trusted to guide practice in most situations
Evidence base		Satisfactory	2 Level II studies (RCTs1) (1 positive quality, 1 neutral)
	1 Level IV study (cross-sectional) (positive quality)
Consistency		Excellent	All studies showed no significant association (if anything, a trend to lower caries incidence with cereal consumption)
Clinical impact		Poor	No effect
Generalizability		Excellent	Populations studied in the body of evidence cover a wide range of ages and countries of residence
Applicability		Excellent	Directly applicable in populations in whom breakfast cereals are consumed regularly

¹RCT, randomized controlled trial.