The Suitability of Questionnaires for Exploring Relations of Dietary Behavior and Tooth Wear

Tooth wear is a relevant oral health problem, especially at a young age. Although ongoing acid exposures may contribute to tooth wear, the role of acidic dietary components in this context remains unclear. To date, in tooth wear studies, dietary behavior has been assessed using traditional questionnaires, but the suitability of this approach has not been investigated so far. In our longitudinal study, we followed 91 participants (21.0 ± 2.2 years) over a period of 1 year (373 ± 19 days) and monitored tooth wear with an intraoral scanner. At baseline (T0) and at the end (T1), we assessed dietary behavior with questionnaires asking about the consumption frequencies of acidic dietary components and the acid taste preferences. Complete data were available from 80 subjects. The consumption frequencies of T0 and T1 correlated weakly to moderately. Taste preferences seem to be a more consistent measure, but there was predominantly no significant correlation with the corresponding consumption frequencies. None of the dietary parameters showed a significant relation with tooth wear. The suitability of dietary questionnaires to assess tooth-relevant dietary behavior seems to be limited.