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The word diagnosis (plural, diagnoses) is derived from the Greek ‘‘dia’’meaning ‘‘through’’and ‘‘gnosis’’meaning ‘‘knowledge’’. 1 Thus,‘‘to diagnose’’implies that it is only through knowledge about the disease that a diagnosis can be established. Diagnosis can be a complicated process. 1, 2 Caries disease diagnosis is not the classical hypothetical-deductive process that diagnosis often is in the medical world. 3 When a patient visits a doctor, the patient tells his or her symptoms to the doctor. The doctor examines the patient and based on his diagnostic hypotheses (knowledge), the doctor chooses the diagnosis that best fits the patient’s signs and symptoms and the treatment that offers the best prognosis for the patient. This systematic approach permits thinking about all the possibilities available to solve the patient’s problem. Dentists, on the other hand, usually examine their patients thinking about how they will …