What does incipient carious lesion mean?

What Is an Incipient Lesion? Repeated exposure to bacterial acids in your mouth eventually causes tooth enamel to demineralize, and these areas of early decay are called incipient lesions or caries.

What causes incipient caries?

They usually occur wherever plaque has been left to accumulate on your teeth, such as around your gums and in the grooves of the molar teeth or around fillings. Incipient caries can either progress into the soft dentin portion of the tooth or become inactive through remineralization.

How do you get rid of incipient lesions?

The first stage in demineralization of enamel is called the incipient lesion or “white spot” (Figure 1). This beginning carious lesion can be reversed with the daily use of the fluoride ions, persistent oral hygiene care to reduce plaque that harbors cariogenic bacteria, and a reduction of refined carbohydrates.

How are interproximal caries diagnosed?

Conclusions: NILT examination has an appropriate sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy for detecting early interproximal caries lesions and can be considered as a method of choice for detecting caries without the use of ionizing radiation.

What is carious lesion?

Carious lesions where there is a visible macroscopic breakdown in the tooth surface (that is, a visible ‘hole’) and the area may have softened walls or floor. Dental caries (dental decay, tooth decay or ‘cavities’)

What is a frank carious lesion?

Incipient lesion develops in the earliest stages when caries begins to demineralize the enamel. Overt, or frank, lesion is characterized by cavitation (the development of a cavity or hole in the tooth).

Should incipient caries be filled?

These caries can be addressed without drilling or filling. The calling card of such caries are white spots on the teeth that aren’t necessarily limited to molars. They can form anywhere on the tooth’s surface.

Can you get rid of white spot lesions?

The most common method of microabrasion to remove white spot lesions is polishing labial/buccal surface of teeth with a rotating device by using a gel formed mixture of 18% hydrochloric acid (HCl) and medium grained pumice [40].

How do you treat white spot lesions?

These lesions are managed in the first step by establishing good oral hygiene habits and prophylaxis with topical fluorides, including high-fluoride toothpastes, fluoride mouthwashes, gels, varnishes, fluoride-containing bonding materials, and elastic ligatures.

How are carious lesions detected?

The most common method of caries detection is visual-tactile. Other non-invasive techniques for detection of early caries have been developed and investigated such as Quantitative Light-induced Fluorescence (QLF), DIAGNOdent (DD), Fibre-optic Transillumination (FOTI) and Electrical Conductance (EC).

What is an interproximal caries?

Introduction. Interproximal caries lesions develop between the contacting proximal surfaces of two adjacent teeth. They first appear clinically as opaque regions and are caused by the loss of enamel translucency at the outermost enamel between the contact point and the top of the free gingival margin.

What is a cavitated carious lesion?

Cavitated lesions (also referred to as cavities) are lesions that have progressed to a more advanced stage. Cavitation usually occurs because of external forces that eventually lead to the collapse of the outer surface in a non-cavitated lesion, which in turn leads to a discontinuity or break in the surface.