The dental sciences are undergoing enormous changes, and the field of operative dentistry is at the forefront of that transformation. No dental educator can fail to notice that various restorative dental technologies, some only 10 years old, are becoming obsolete, and that today’s students and practitioners must incorporate new and enhanced concepts into provision of the care that patients require. What is outdated is discarded, what remains applicable is updated, and what is new and necessary is incorporated. Only the best information and technologies survive to guide our teaching and practice of operative dentistry.
Dental caries is not a lesion-it is a disease. Molecular biology and new diagnostic technologies have so altered the field of cariology that its overview in the present volume is only cursory. The increasing ability to diagnostically measure earlier stages in the caries process is leading to a redefinition of caries and is changing contemporary
approaches to caries treatment. The choice between surgical and nonsurgical caries treatment is becoming
more complex. During the last 20 years, dental caries prevalence and severity have declined in most of the industrialized world, yet significant population components have remained at high caries risk. Taking a more global perspective, it is known that dental caries prevalence is increasing in many industrializing countries. In many highly populated, mid-tier countries, caries is still a largely untreated condition. In all of these situations, the challenges of caries treatment facing dental educators, students, and practitioners are enormous and cannot be overlooked.
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