Individual Susceptibility to Erosive Tooth Wear: Wine Tasters

Erosive tooth wear is the classic gene-environmental model. It requires the exposure to acids, typically from the diet or from the gastric content of the host, and shows variation among individuals and populations, which suggests it to be determined by more than one gene, each with small individual effects. This genetic component is not easily studied since a precise assessment of acidic exposure is complicated. In humans, this is commonly done by self-reported data. In this chapter, evidence is discussed that supports the assumption that a genetic component exists, inspecting data from wine tasters, and ex vivo experiments combining different dental enamel specimens and saliva compositions. These data can be found "hidden" in reports that do not directly deal with individual susceptibility to erosive tooth wear.