Dental caries process.

Abstract

The boundaries of caries diagnosis and caries intervention are changing. Dentists currently use visual, tactical, and radiographic information to detect relatively advanced changes in the dental hard tissues. The clinical management of dental caries has been primarily directed at the treatment of the consequences of the disease process by placing restorations and not at curing the disease. Using emerging technology, dentists will be able to detect incipient dental caries (demineralization) at an earlier stage than the clinically visible white spot. Dental caries is a dynamic process, which in its early stages is reversible and even in its more advanced stages can be arrested. The widespread use of fluoride has dramatically reduced the prevalence of dental caries and the rate of the progression of carious lesions. These changes permit dentists to adopt more conservative management strategies directed at the prevention and cure of dental caries.