Aim:

to perform an integrative review based on a clinical question: "Can motivational interviewing (MI) be used to prevent dental caries in preschool children?".

Materials and methods:

an integrative literature review was conducted in April 2021 using an adaptation of the "6S System". We also evaluated the quality of the systematic reviews (SR) found through two tools for methodological assessment. Evidence-Based Dentistry, Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice and on the website of the Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry of the American Dental Association. SRs were searched in the Cochrane Library and PubMed/Medline databases were searched. The selected search words were "motivational interviewing" and "dental caries".

Results:

the final search resulted in 2 SR on the topic. One SR from 2020 showed a reduction in dental caries through meta-analysis, but with no statistically significant difference; the authors point out that the limited evidence is due to the presence of heterogeneous studies based on different methodologies. Another SR from 2021 concluded that MI has the potential to modify behavior and significantly reduce carious lesions, mainly in children with high caries experience. The methodological quality of the SR included in this review was also assessed using the PRISMA and AMSTAR-2 protocols. Both showed high quality and low risk of bias.

Conclusion:

the practice of MI contributes to the prevention of dental caries in preschoolers, especially in high-risk children. However, the evidence is moderate, obtained from poor meta-analyses and a limited number of randomized studies of good methodological quality.

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