Clinical and Microbiological Problems Associated with Root Caries

Abstract

As teeth are more frequently retained into old age, it is to be expected that the incidence of root caries may rise. Although caries of enamel has been extensively studied, there have been fewer than 100 publications on root caries in the English-speaking literature, and the majority of these have been epidemiological. Root caries has been recognised as a specific clinical entity only for the past four decades¹⁷ and although it has been recognised that it has a complex multifactorial aetiology, it is still not clear what factors are involved and what are their relative importance and interrelationships.