Caries Risk Assessment: Where do we stand?-Narrative Review

Abstract

Dental caries have risen as the most prevalent and rapidly progressing universal pandemic throughout the vast creed of growing population in the planet. Dental caries has been evidenced to be claimed as the only significant disease affecting both children and adults with an apprehended trend without a constrainable hault in the pregressive scenario of its expansion involving the dental hard tissues. Though dental caries continue to boon around causing substantial side effects thereby compromising the individuals routine activities, it still curtails as the least significant health concerns to population of developing nations across the world. The highly incurred treatment and therapeutic monetary confinements, multiple appointments, lack of accessibility and inadequate awareness on the fact that dental health also plays a significant role in determining the individual’s general health, all these factors contributes to the neglected dental needs in population serving to the predefined category. However this signifies the fact and need that with the prevailing dental scenario with highly specific dental needs, it has become mandatory in incorporating caries risk assessment tool to a great extent. Researchers are in the quest of developing and designing these caries risk assessment tools and modalities which would be cost effective, easy to use, provides with early detection as well as aids in devising a definitive and validated treatment plan for progressive caries lesions thereby ascertaining to cause a recession of dental carious lesions.