In the twenty -first century, greater emphasis must be placed on assessment of caries -risk, shifting patients to a low caries risk status, remineralizing noncavitated lesions, abandoning the surgical approach to caries management and repairing rather than replacing defective restorations. Beyond the well-established and currently used methods, some innovative and exciting techniques have shown early research successes that most likely will be used for early caries intervention in the future.