Impact of oral health conditions on school performance and lost school days by children and adolescents: what are the actual pieces of evidence?

AIM: To investigate evidence of associations between oral health status of children and adolescents and their school performance and lost school days due to dental problems. METHODS: PubMed electronic database was searched for scientific papers published between 1990 and 2013. Twenty-one papers that attempted to investigate the impact of oral health on school performance and lost school days were retrieved. Brief descriptions of each study's methodology and outcomes were presented and discussed. RESULTS: Although the papers reported statistically significant associations between school perform...