Objective:

to determine the effectiveness of four methods for detecting potentially malignant oral lesions through an umbrella systematic review.

Source of data:

the search was performed in the PubMed and EBSCOhost databases. Years of search limited to 2013-2018. Search strategy: (early detection of cancer) AND (mouth neoplasms), (early detection of cancer) AND (diagnostic techniques and procedures), (mouth neoplasms) AND (diagnostic techniques and procedures).

Study selection:

using critical reading and the PRISMA checklist, systematic reviews with the objective of evaluating the effectiveness of at least one of the detection methods for potentially malignant oral lesions were selected; six studies met the inclusion criteria.

Data extraction:

through critical reading of the previously selected systematic reviews.

Results of data synthesis:

effectiveness was determined by comparing the mean percentages of sensitivity and specificity. Vizilite's sensitivity and specificity means were 81.31 and 25.4%, Microlux DL's were 82.63 and 69.52%, toluidine blue's were 82.07 and 66.27%, and exfoliative cytology's were 76.77 and 80.87%, respectively.

Conclusions:

the detection methods for pre-malignant oral lesions evaluated in this study need greater scientific evidence to validate their effectiveness. The method with the greatest effectiveness is Microlux/DL, due to its high levels of sensitivity and specificity. (Acta Med Colomb 2021; 46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36104/amc.2021.1730).

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