Wear behaviour of direct composite restorations in tooth wear patients: a 5-year clinical study

This study aimed to investigate the wear behaviour of direct composite restorations after 5 years and associated patient factors.

38 patients (6 females, 32 males; 35.2 ± 7.6y) from the Radboud Tooth Wear Project with generalized moderate to severe tooth wear were treated with direct composite restorations on all teeth. Ethical approval was sought and granted before the study was undertaken. Intraoral 3D scans were recorded at 1 month (baseline) and 5 years (recall) after treatment. The amount of height loss was measured at six index teeth (first molars and upper central incisors). Patient factors (age, vertical dimension of occlusion increase, bite force, aetiology score, jaw position and bearing/ non-bearing cusps) were included in the analysis. Multilevel multiple regression with bootstrapping was used to analyse the influence of these factors on wear behaviour of restorations. Observer reliability was tested by paired t-tests and Band-Altman plots (p<0.05) RESULTS: After 5 years, the mean height loss was 0.23± 0.19 mm for incisors and 0.43± 0.24 mm for molars (p≤0.001). Patient factors did not show any significant influence on height loss of the composite restorations, while bearing cusps showed significant more wear compared to non-bearing cusps (p≤0.001). The observer reliability tests confirmed the repeatability (correlation of 0.809, DME 0.103).

Wear of composite restorations is a significant and relevant factor over time in patients treated with severe tooth wear. Within the limitations of this clinical study, patient factors were found not to have a significant effect on wear behaviour of direct composite restorations.