Recent Advances in Dental Diagnosis : A brief sum up of all the diagnostic aids used in present day dentistry

Dental diagnosis of the disease must consider not only the presence of lesions afflicting the teeth, but other factors including the nature of the oral flora,dietary habits,salivary flow and oral hygiene habits.Current methods for the clinical diagnosis of dental caries involve visual-tactile-radiographic procedures that have been described on numerous occasions and have been in routine use for more than half a century with very little change. It is also widely recognized that carious lesions cannot be detected with conventional methods until they are relatively well advanced and may involve one-third or more of the thickness of enamel. As a result, it is often necessary to restore the lesion rather than attempt alternative measures to reverse or arrest the lesion. This compiled literature attempts to bring various recent advances in diagnosis and treatment planning in the field of Pediatric, Conservative and Endodontic Dentistry under a single roof and thus enables the dentist to review all the methods to judiciously diagnose and thus plan the treatment accordingly.