Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice · Oct 31, 2026

From dental screening to diabetes care: effectiveness of screening, referral, and integrated care pathways for dysglycaemia in dental settings—a systematic review and meta-analysis

By Ruan C, Wang L

Dental visits may reach adults with unrecognised dysglycaemia, but clinical value depends on progression from risk identification to medical diagnosis and care. We systematically reviewed dental-setting studies reporting screening, referral, confirmatory assessment or linked-care outcomes. MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase and Web of Science Core Collection were searched from inception through 12 October 2026. Two reviewers independently screened 751 deduplicated records and 71 potentially eligible full texts. Forty-eight unique eligible reports informed the qualitative evidence map15 studies provided referral denominators. Across 2,727 referrals, 1,269 participants completed the reported follow-up milestone. Random-effects pooled completion was 56.0% (95% CI 45.8–65.7% I² = 95.1%prediction interval 21.6–85.5%). In seven studies, 217 of 715 diagnostic completers had confirmed prediabetes or diabetes pooled yield was 39.5% (95% CI 26.2–54.5% I² = 89.1%). Endpoint definitions and diagnostic criteria differed materially. Integrated pathways were associated with high completion in some observational reports, but comparative evidence was sparse and confounded. Dental screening can identify dysglycaemia however, the highly heterogeneous completion estimate should not be treated as a universal programme effect. Closed-loop referral and related implementation components remain proposed strategies requiring pragmatic comparative evaluation.

doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2026.113634PubMed 42966402Interventions