Caries risk assessment – An initiation to prevention: A literature review

The high incidence of dental caries in young children has highlighted the need for a more comprehensive approach to caries prevention in children. Caries risk assessment (CRA) is widely recognised as a foundation for clinical decision-making and disease management for individual patients, as well as allocating time and resources to those in the group who are most in need. It also notes that the course of action taken to prevent caries will alter a patient's caries risk status at an early stage. The approach takes into account past caries experience, sociodemographic, socioeconomic, oral hygiene, eating habits, oral bacteria, and saliva characteristics in patients. Various types of Caries Risk Assessment Tools that can be implemented in practice are Caries Questionnaire, Cariogram, Caries Assessment tool, Caries Management by Risk Assessment, Traffic Light Matrix, Caries Assessment and Risk Evaluation test.