Caries Management – Science and Clinical Practice

Abstract

The Book Review is drafted in the reviwer's sole wording and illustrates his opinions.

Concepts in Critical Thinking Applied to Caries Risk Assessment in Dental Education

“…An extensive body of scholarship exists in the dental literature regarding caries risk. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] An extensive body of scholarship also exists in the educational literature [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] that could guide the development of learning frameworks to apply the science of caries risk to individual patient encounters. In dental education, an important step for students is to emulate the thought process of an expert to capture key observation and decision points to learn how to assess their own performance and guide their learning.…”

Dentin reactions to caries are misinterpreted by histological “gold standards”

“…In some cases, more than one section per tooth was analyzed. There is conflicting data on whether demineralization can spread laterally to the main dentinal tubules (close to the enamel-dentin junction) or not in non-cavitated carious lesions 20 , 21 . If lateral spread does occur, dentin demineralization and sclerosis might occur at random in different sections of a same lesion.…”

“…The assumption, now shown quantitatively to be wrong, that translucent dentin under SM always represents sclerotic or non-carious dentin is currently highly influential in the selection of normal dentin, and in the determination of the onset 25 – 27 and extent (perhaps the most important) of the carious process in dentin. An indication of such influency is that currently, considering most popular 23 , 28 and recent 21 textbooks, nearly no one is trained in cariology and dental histology without being presented to SM images showing translucent dentin interpreted as sclerotic dentin.…”

EFCD Curriculum for undergraduate students in Integrated Conservative Oral Healthcare (ConsCare)

“…It is widely accepted that the caries process can be prevented to a large extent. The prevention of caries relies on patients following dietary advice and practicing effective oral hygiene, including the use of fluoride-containing toothpaste, possibly supplemented by the use of mouthwash and other oral hygiene aids [3,4]. Current curricula and clinical guidelines reflect the increasing emphasis on caries prevention [5,6], but caries still remains a highly prevalent disease in all age groups [7,8], with growing concerns for, in particular, the increased prevalence of root caries in older patients [9].…”