Scientific research, technologic advances and a better understanding of the disease process have contributed to dentistry's emergence from a purely reparative art towards a preventive oriented science. The current approaches to preventing caries formation in humans are all based on attempts to disrupt the interaction among the etiologic factors known to be responsible for the disease i.e. main focus is on primary prevention. Early identification of dental caries in all age groups provides an opportunity to identify population at high risk for the disease so that appropriate primary preventive intervention can be initiated to protect unaffected teeth. As it is an easily preventable disease, it is cost effective to prevent rather than cure the carious lesions.
