Root Caries and Management

Dental caries is an ancient disease that has been found in skulls from all over the world where the primitive man lived in isolated areas and the diet lacked refined and carbohydrate-rich food. Root caries is a lesion located on the root surface of a tooth, usually close to or below the gingival margin, and is the major cause of tooth loss in older adults, and tooth loss is the most signi¿cant oral health-related negative variable of quality of life for the elderly population who get their teeth extracted and replaced with removable prostheses. At present, root caries is becoming a new area of focused research in dentistry, as more people are living to an advanced age and retaining their natural teeth. With advanced age, there is more gingival recession, which leaves the root surface exposed to the oral environment and leads to an increase in the root caries rate. It is a preventable disease. This book deals with how to manage, prevent or mitigate this disease.