“…As such, there has been a long tradition of bite-wing screening radiography in addition to a clinical examina tion for the detection of dental caries, as a basis for preva lence calculations and treatment decisions in schoolchil dren [Murray and Shaw, 1975;Sheiham, 1977;Mann et al, 1989;de Vries etal., 1990], Most previous studies stating the importance of radiographic screening as a supplement to clinical caries exami nation have been performed in populations with relatively high DMF-S scores [Stephen et al, 1988;de Vries et al, 1990]. The benefit of bite-wing screening may be reduced in present-day generations of children who experience less caries and infrequent approximal lesions [Ruiken et al, 1982[Ruiken et al, ,1986Bohannan et al, 1984;Graves and Stamm, 1985;Mandel, 1985], The prevalence of approximal caries in 14-to 15-year-olds has declined to approximately one third of what it was 20 years ago [Kalsbeek et al, 1993]. The predominant sites for caries development in western schoolchildren are, at present, fissures and pits at occlu sal, buccal, and oral surfaces of molars [Bohannan et al, 1984], Recently, advanced digital radiographic methods have been demonstrated useful for the assessment of caries in occlusal surfaces.…”