Caries risk assessment

Caries is a multifactorial disease resulting from a chain of events involving numerous clinical, microbiological, behavioral, and social factors. Today, caries prevention has reached significant proportions, yet the disease remains widely prevalent, especially in our region. Caries risk assessment has been a part of scientific and clinical practice for several decades. Various models, tools, and risk assessment forms are applied with the aim of preventing the onset or further progression of the disease in individuals, and consequently, at the community level. Reducing caries risk would improve oral health, mitigate the impact of caries on general health, enhance patients' quality of life, and reduce the financial resources required for dental therapeutic procedures.The monograph consists of five chapters. The first chapter, Introduction, discusses the importance of oral health and the prevalence of caries. The second chapter, Caries Risk Factors, provides a detailed description of the primary risk factors for caries development. The third chapter, Caries Risk, addresses the importance of risk assessment and evaluates specific assessment models. The subsequent chapter, Tools for Caries Risk Assessment, details eight different risk assessment tools used in clinical practice. The final chapter, IAPD Recommendations for Dental Treatment Based on Caries Risk Assessment, presents the latest dental treatment recommendations from the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry, based on the assessed risk of caries development.