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