What Constitutes Dental Caries?
The authors have approached the subject from a clinical standpoint. WHAT CONSITUTUTES DENTAL CARIES? It is perhaps unfortunate that the term “caries” can be used to refer to both the caries process and the caries lesion that forms as a result of that process. The caries process is initiated in the biofilm or dental plaque (Fejerskov and Manji, 1990; Manji et al., 1991; Fejerskov and Thylstrup, 1994). Biofilms form on any solid surface exposed to appropriate amounts of water and nutrient (Wimpenny, 1994). The dental tissues—enamel, dentin, and cementum—are the relevant oral solid surfaces, and these surfaces are coated by a pellicle to which the microbial cells attach. The primary colonizers and secondary organisms generate a matrix of exopolymer within which cells grow. A community of organisms is formed rather than a haphazard collection of bacteria. The community has a collective physiology which can solve the specific physicochemical problems posed by the environment at the site. Th
