Awareness and Educational Effectiveness of the ToothSOS Mobile Application for Traumatic Dental Injuries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background/Aim: ToothSOS is a free International Association of Dental Traumatology application giving guideline-based first-aid instructions for traumatic dental injuries; no synthesis specific to it exists. This review assessed awareness of the application, its educational effectiveness and its reported quality and utilisation. Material and Methods: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar, with supplementary sources, were searched on 5 August 2026 without language or date restrictions. Studies addressing any of these were eligible. With one conflict-of-interest exception, screening, extraction and appraisal were independent and in duplicate, using Joanna Briggs Institute checklists and a review-specific appraisal. Awareness was pooled using a binomial–normal generalised linear mixed model with a prespecified subgroup analysis by population type. Certainty was assessed with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. Results: Twenty-one studies were included. Fourteen awareness studies included 4576 participants; eight were conducted in Türkiye. Awareness was 27.1% (95% confidence interval 13.4–47.1) among dental professionals and students, 3.1% (1.0–8.8) among non-dental health professionals and students and 1.6% (0.6–4.1) among lay populations. Pooled across all populations it was 5.0% (1.8–13.1), with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 96.5%) and a prediction interval of 0.1%–79.2%; this summarises the included samples rather than any global population. Three uncontrolled studies (298 participants) reported immediate knowledge gains too heterogeneous to pool; at 1 month their pooled standardised mean change was 2.33 (1.48–3.18). Certainty was very low for awareness and educational outcomes. Conclusions: Awareness was particularly low in non-dental health and lay samples. Population and geographic heterogeneity limit generalisation. Short-term knowledge gains do not establish sustained learning or improved management of actual injuries, and application-quality findings rest on an unvalidated review-specific appraisal. These findings support evaluating targeted dissemination and longer-term clinical outcomes. Trial Registration: PROSPERO; submitted 28 July 2026 and formally registered 9 August 2026, after the searches.