The complete review of caries assessment systems

In view of the global epidemic of untreated caries in children there is an urgent need to establish a scoring system that both assesses and quantifies various advanced stages of caries. The DMF index despite having limitations has been widely utilized in oral epidemiological surveys. It is recommended by the WHO for measuring and comparing the experience of dental caries in populations. The future new research in caries epidemiology will depend on finding an ideal caries index. There are many promising new caries indices purposed, but still there is a need for further studies to evaluate their validity and reliability before they can replace DMFT index.