1. A method for processing images to detect dental caries comprising: (a) directing incident light toward a tooth, wherein said incident light excites a fluorescent emission from said tooth tissue; (b) obtaining fluorescence image from said fluorescent emission; (c) obtaining, from reflected light, a reflectance image of said tooth tissue; (d) applying color balance to said reflectance image; (e) removing specular reflectance from said color balanced reflectance image; (f) registering said fluorescent image with said specular reflectance corrected image; and (g) combining said registered fluorescent image with said specular reflectance compensated image to provide a diagnostic image.