La etiologia de la caries dental es una preocupacion permanente en la investigacion odontologica. La caries, reconocida como una de las enfermedades mas antiguas, se caracteriza por ser cronica, infecciosa, no contagiosa y de origen multifactorial, con gran impacto en la salud publica. Hoy en dia, ademas de todos los factores involucrados en la triada de la caries, se ha encontrado que tambien los factores geneticos y posiblemente epigeneticos podrian contribuir a incrementar el riesgo y susceptibilidad a la caries. Entre estos estan la variacion en los factores inherentes al huesped, como la herencia, los trastornos en la formacion del esmalte y la dentina, la respuesta inmune alterada a microrganismos cariogenicos y su asociacion con el antigeno leucocitario humano. El proposito de este articulo es analizar la relacion que podria existir entre la etiologia de la caries dental y la genetica y como desde la epigenetica tambien podrian interpretarse algunas de sus causas. The etiology of dental caries is a constant concern in dental research. Recognized as one of the oldest diseases, dental caries is a chronic, infectious, non-contagious, multifactorial disease that has a high impact on public health. Today, besides all the factors involved in the triad of caries, it has been found that genetic and epigenetic factors could contribute to increase the risk and susceptibility to caries. It includes variations of factors inherent to the host, such as heredity, abnormal enamel and dentin formation, altered immune response to cariogenic microorganisms and their association with the human leukocyte antigen. The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship that may exist between dental caries etiology and genetics, and how some causes could be identified from the point of view of epigenetics.