[Is dental caries contagious?]

Results from microbiological studies and saliva analyses have now become valuable diagnostic aids which we could no longer imagine being without. They give us additional, objective information on the clinical and radiological examination of caries. These tests have also proved to be valuable pedagogical aids for motivating patients in individual prophylaxis. The question asked at the beginning, "Are caries infectious?" can be answered as follows: Yes, the possibility of transmitting caries exists mainly during the first three years of an infant's life and when the molars erupt in the sixth and twelfth years. Transmission is avoidable when one knows the various ways in which it is transmitted. Information on this and knowledge among the general public is still, however, in its infancy.