Caries Excavation; Current Concepts and Techniques

AbstractDental caries is a disease and the carious lesion is the disease's consequence and manifestation it's signs and symptoms. Carious lesion management is used to control the disease symptoms at the tooth level, whereas dental caries management is used to control the disease symptoms at the patient level using preventive and noninvasive methods. While it is impossible to link the clinical signs of carious lesions to their visual appearance, we have been able to do so indirectly, based on disease clinical outcomes (soft, leathery, firm, and hard dentine). The following are the methods for removing carious tissue: 1) selective carious tissue removal, including selective removal to soft dentine and selective removal to firm dentine; 2) stepwise removal, including stage 1 selective removal to soft dentine and stage 2 selective removal to firm dentine 6 to 12 months later; and 3) Previously known as full caries removal, nonselective removal to hard dentine (technique no longer recommended).