The absence of questions can mean clarity, confusion, or a room where confusion is expensive to admit.

Silence after an explanation is uninformative. It can mean everyone understood, or nobody did, or that admitting confusion in this room costs too much, and all three produce identical quiet. Reading it as comprehension is the most convenient interpretation and the least reliable.

Ask a specific question that requires an answer rather than asking whether there are questions. And in any room where you have standing, being the person who admits confusion first changes the cost for everyone else. It is one of the more useful things authority can be spent on.