Detection and diagnosis of the early caries lesion

The purpose of this manuscript is to discuss the current available methods to detect early lesions amenable to prevention. The current evidenced-based caries understanding, based on biological concepts, involves new approaches in caries detection, assessment, and management that should include non-cavitated lesions. Even though the importance of management of non-cavitated (NC) lesions has been recognized since the early 1900s, dental caries has been traditionally detected at the cavitation stage, and its management has focused strongly on operative treatment. Methods of detection of early carious lesions have received significant research attention over the last 20 years. The most common method of caries detection is visual-tactile. Other non-invasive techniques for detection of early caries have been developed and investigated such as Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence (QLF), DIAGNOdent (DD), Fibre-optic Transillumination (FOTI) and Electrical Conductance (EC). Based on previous systematic reviews, the diagnosis of NCCLs might be more accurately achieved in combination of the visual method and the use of other methods such as electrical methods and QLF for monitoring purposes.