International consensus recommends that caries diagnosis, (ie, comprehensive assessment of all patient information by a dentist) is differentiated from lesion detection, (use of objective method to detect disease) and lesion assessment (characterising and monitoring of a lesion once detected). Caries diagnosis, whether in the dental office, during a field survey, or as part of a clinical research project, is done by the visual examination of tooth surfaces, perhaps with the use of a dental probe