A best practices approach to caries management.

Unlabelled: Caries management by risk assessment represents best practices and is an evidence-based model that focuses on treating and preventing disease at the patient level rather than a surgical/restorative approach at the tooth level.

Background: Dental caries is a multifactorial, biofilm and pH mediated disease that affects people of all ages and disproportionally affects certain populations at epidemic proportions. Simply restoring cavitated teeth does nothing to resolve the disease. At the heart of the CAMBRA philosophy is identifying the patient's unique risk level for future caries disease. This can be done by completing a caries risk assessment (CRA). Several easy to use CRA questionnaires are available. Once the patient's unique risk level has been determined, preventive and therapeutic interventions, based on the specific risk level, can then be implemented.

Methods: Landmark publications, original research, and systematic reviews are analyzed and reviewed to form the basis for this shift in patient care related to caries disease.

Conclusions: Caries management by risk assessment has emerged as the new paradigm in patient care and represents an evidence-based, best practices approach with the potential for significant advantages over traditional methods.