Dental Caries Diagnostic Methods

Dental caries, a progressive bacterial damage to teeth, is one of the most common diseases that affects 95% of the population and is still a major cause of tooth loss. Unfortunately, there is currently no highly sensitive and specific clinical means for its detection in its early stages. The accurate detection of early caries in enamel would be of significant clinical value. Since, it is possible to reverse the process of decay therapeutically at this stage, i.e. operative intervention might be avoided. Caries diagnosis continues to be a challenging task for the dental practitioners. Researchers are developing tools that are sensitive and specific enough for the current presentation of caries. These tools are being tested both in vitro and in vivo; however, no single method will allow detection of caries on all tooth surfaces. Therefore, the purpose of the present review was to evaluate different caries diagnostic methods.