Chapter 11: Future Perspectives in the Study of Dental Caries

Abstract

Dental caries is a disease that affects people of all ages since demineralization and remineralization of tooth surfaces occur in everyone's mouths, and caries lesions develop when there is an imbalance between demineralization and remineralization. In this way, teeth are exposed to a risk of caries. Prevention strategies aiming at "zero caries" and treatments aiming at "tooth recovery and regeneration" are the two main areas of caries research, and both basic and clinical research are required in these fields. The following future perspectives of caries research were identified: The disease concept of caries is undergoing rapid structural changes, as it will increasingly become a disease of all generations: Changes in our understanding of caries etiology (from cariogenic pathogens in the specific plaque hypothesis to the oral microbiome in the ecological plaque hypothesis) will alter the concept of caries-associated bacteria (from mutans streptococci to a group of bacteria with high acid-producing capacity and acid-tolerance or acidogenic/aciduric bacteria). In the field of prevention, more individualized, site-specific, and high-precision examinations for risk assessment and diagnostic methods, including genetic tests, will be developed, and advanced preventive, curative, and regenerative treatments will become possible. To achieve this, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research are essential, and collaboration and fusion with other sciences, such as material science, engineering, food science, and nutritional science, are required. Furthermore, in order to put the results of such research into practice in society, it will be necessary to promote industry-academia collaborations; promote behavioral change through sociological approaches; and correct economic, informational, and educational inequalities. The sociological approach requires the coupling of epidemiology and data science as well as the validation of clinical applications, and artificial intelligence will play a powerful role in such analyses.