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Key Points
- Effective treatment of any disease requires the correct diagnosis, treatment, and the patient’s cooperation.
- The dentist should determine a treatment sequence that is based on the severity of the patient’s disease as well as on the patient’s ability and willingness to cooperate with treatment.
- Dental caries manifests in several recognized patterns of disease, including early childhood caries, pit-and-fissure caries, smooth-surface caries, root-surface caries, and bilaterality. These patterns have different implications for risk classification.
- The key factor driving caries risk assessment is the presence of active cavitated smooth-surface lesions at the time of the examination.
- Population groups requiring different treatment approaches include patients from birth to age 4 at low and high risk for dental caries and patients ages 5 and over at low, moderate, high, and very high risk for dental caries.
- Caries activity and other modifying factors determine patients' risk categories and appropriate recall intervals.
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