A Comparative evaluation of the efficiency of visual tactile method, caries detector dye and fluorescence device in diagnosing residual caries after cavity preparation”.

: Dental caries (DC) still remains a common condition among adults with increasing prevalence rates in low-income countries. In its treatment, deep carious lesions may pose the challenge of balancing adequate caries removal to prevent residual caries and excessive sound dentine removal. The extent of carious dentine excavation is subjective based on the clinician’s assessment of the color and texture or hardness of the dentine, which is the visual-tactile method. The acceptable amount of infected dentine that can be left behind during cavity preparation remains a debate as there is no definite diagnostic tool available to clinically define the caries-removal limit. The study therefore aimed to compare the efficiency of visual-tactile, caries detector dye (CDD) and laser fluorescence (LF) device methods of residual caries diagnosis after cavity preparation.