Measurement of tooth wear in patients with palatal erosion.

Abstract

AIM:

To develop a reproducible method for the assessment of tooth wear in vivo using a laser profilometer.

DESIGN:

A controlled study to measure tooth wear.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS:

Wear was measured over a 6-month period in 13 patients with unexplained palatal dental erosion and compared with a group of 7 controls without any evidence of abnormal wear.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Metal disks were cemented to the tooth surface and impressions taken at 6-month intervals. Wear was estimated by scanning the impressions with a contacting laser profilometer and measuring a change in depth around the disk over a 6-month period using fixed reference points on the metal disks.

RESULTS:

A statistically significant difference was observed between patients with palatal erosion and the controls. Patients with erosion had a median of 36.5 microns of wear over 6 months (range 17.6-108.2) and the controls had a median of 3.7 microns (range 0.5-15.8).

CONCLUSIONS:

This paper presents a novel method for measuring erosion using fixed reference points cemented to the palatal surfaces of upper incisor teeth.

• Authors: D W Bartlett, L Blunt, B G Smith
• Journal: British dental journal (Br Dent J) Vol. 182 Issue 5 Pg. 179-84 (Mar 08 1997) ISSN: 0007-0610 [Print] England
• PMID: 9134802 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Aged
• Case-Control Studies
• Diagnosis, Oral (instrumentation, methods)
• Humans
• Lasers
• Middle Aged
• Reproducibility of Results
• Statistics, Nonparametric
• Tooth Attrition (diagnosis)
• Tooth Erosion (diagnosis)