The shared vision for ICDAS is:  ¤ ICDAS is a clinical scoring system for use in dental education,  clinical practice, research, and epidemiology.  ¤ ICDAS is designed to: lead to better quality information to inform  decisions about appropriate diagnosis, prognosis, and clinical  management at both the indivdual and public health levels.  and  ¤ ICDAS provides a framework to support and enable personalised   total caries management for improved long term health outcomes.

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In order to use the ICDAS criteria in clinical practice the following conditions are essential to enable examiners to assess each of the caries codes accurately: overhead operating light; cleaned teeth and compressed air.  Since caries forms in areas of plaque stagnation it is essential that the teeth are cleaned with at least a toothbrush and floss before conducting an examination using the ICDAS criteria.

Explanation to the table
 

Column 1:	Terms of increasing severity stages of caries for lay persons
Column 2:	Terms for the visual apperance for increasing severity stages of caries for professionals
Column 3	Related scores to coulmn 2
Column 4:	Activity assessment posibilities for the scores in column 3 and thus also columns 2 and 1
Column 5:	Scores for radiographical classification of lesion severity:
	0=no radiolucency
	1= radiolucency in outer ½ of the enamel
	2= radiolucency in inner ½ of the enamel± EDJ
	3= radiolucency limited to the outer 1/3 of dentine
	4= radiolucency reaching the middle 1/3 of dentine
	5= radiolucency reaching the inner 1/3 of dentine, clinically cavitated
	6= radiolucency into the pulp, clinically cavitated
Column 6:	Scores for Fibre-optic translumination (FOTI); classification of lesion severity: Proximal and occlusal
	0= no shadow or stained area
	1= Lesion stays the same width when transilluminated/Thin grey shadow into enamel when transilluminated
	2= Wide grey shadow into enamel when transilluminated
	3= Wide grey shadow into enamel with no evidence of dentine shadow
	4= Orange/brown or bluish/black shadow < 2mm in width
	5= Shadow as described above and/or transillumination light is blocked > 2mm in width
	6= Large area of frank cavitation with likely pulpal involvement
Column 7:	Risk assessment:h=high, m=medium, l=low
Column 8:	PTO = Preventive treatment option; OTO = Operative treatment option
Column 9:	p = progressing; a = arrested; r = regressing