The prevalence of toothwear in 1007 dental patients

The dental profession is becoming increasingly concerned about unacceptable levels of toothwear and there is an impression that the condition is becoming more prevalent. There is, as yet, little epidemiological evidence to illuminate the question and so this study is therefore intended to provide baseline data on the prevalence of toothwear in a sample of the dental attending population of South East England. A degree of toothwear is normal and progresses throughout life. Toothwear which is acceptable in an older age group would not be so with younger patients. It is therefore necessary to designate threshold values of acceptable levels of toothwear for different age groups to reach realistic conclusions about the prevalence of unacceptable levels of toothwear. Of the 1007 patients examined only nine had completely unworn dentitions. More than 93,500 tooth surfaces were examined and of these 5.1% had wear which exceeded the threshold values. Despite increasing the threshold values for the older age groups from those proposed in an earlier study by Smith & Knight (1984), these patients still had higher levels of unacceptable toothwear. There was a slight tendency for men to have more wear than women, but there was no clinically significant relationship between the number of missing posterior teeth and wear of the anterior teeth.