Due to the multifactorial etiology of the carious process and also to the dynamic character of the disease, its clinicaltherapeutical management becomes increasingly complex. The strategies applied in the management of occlusal caries have had several stages, starting with the pre-restorative period, when only few empirical and simple restorative methods were available. The following so-called ”restorative” stage was dominated by the belief of specialists and researchers that the only efficient treatment of carious lesions, whichever their evolution stage, is reconstruction of the odontal functional morphology through obturations. In the last decades of the last century, the preventive principles, supported by a better understanding of the mechanisms of action of fluoride, gained more and more space, ”the preventive stage” being now in progress. The major challenge in the management of the carious process is the control of its advance especially through preventive/therapeutical non-operative measures. The scope of any pattern of caries management is first to maintain the dental tissues, and to restore them only when recommended: such a desiderate should be considered in all decisions taken during anamnesis, clinical examination, establishment of diagnostis, until the end of the treatment.
Keywords:- management.
- occlusal caries
- risk assessment