The Rise Of Tooth Wear: Understanding The Causes And The Importance Of Early Intervention

According to recent studies, tooth wear is on the rise, with at least 75% of adults and more than 50% of children now displaying some form of identifiable tooth wear.¹ For dentists, this means that early identification and conservative management are more important than ever for effective treatment and prevention.

Why Is Tooth Wear On The Rise?

While tooth wear is a natural part of aging, non-age-related tooth wear can occur due to a multitude of lifestyle and behavioural factors, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in children and adolescents, with one Irish study noting a significant association between the presence of tooth wear with dentine exposed in the primary dentition, and tooth wear on the occlusal surfaces of the first permanent molars at 12 years old.²

• Dietary Wear: Modern diets that include soft drinks, energy drinks, alcohol, chewable tablets, vinegar, and acidic fruits can cause softened enamel and contribute to wear.
• Mechanical Wear: Bruxism (often related to stress, sleep bruxism is estimated to affect 21% of people³), the use of abrasive toothpastes or harsh cleaning practices, and piercings can all result in premature wear to teeth.
• Intrinsic Wear: Gastrointestinal conditions, chronic vomiting during pregnancy, and eating disorders can all contribute to increased tooth wear if mitigating actions are not put in place.
• Longer Life Expectancy: People are retaining more of their natural teeth into older age than in the past, resulting in an increased opportunity for cumulative wear over their lifetime. Among adults aged 75-84 years, around 44% show signs of moderate tooth wear.⁴

Recognising The Signs Of Tooth Wear

Tooth wear is usually multi-factorial and a combination of four main types: erosion, attrition, abrasion, and abfraction.

Moderate Tooth Wear Treatment And Prevention With GC

GC offer a wide range of solutions for both the treatment and the prevention of tooth wear, whether you’re looking for long-term restorative solutions, or patient-friendly at-home care.

Tooth Wear Treatment

Depending on your case, you should choose one of the following three approaches:

1. Pre-restorative orthodontic treatment followed by a full-mouth restoration for patients with malocclusion and prevalent wear across anterior and posterior teeth.
2. The Dahl principle for patients with wear located exclusively in the anterior region.
3. Restorative treatment for patients with generalised wear but normal occlusion and teeth alignment.

Once you have chosen a suitable approach, you should prepare your patient’s teeth for treatment by checking their overall gingival health, cleaning the teeth, performing proper isolation, and bevelling the enamel for better retention and aesthetics, followed by one of these three techniques:

1. Freehand build-up using a wear-resistant, easy-to-handle universal composite, such as GC’s G-ænial A'CHORD, to deliver highly aesthetic results for patients with simple treatment needs and limited affected surfaces.
2. Stamp technique for patients requiring a moderately complex treatment across multiple teeth, using a paste composite such as G-ænial A'CHORD built up in a similar manner to the injection moulding technique to provide a long-last gloss and beautiful finish.
3. Injection moulding technique (IMT) again, for more complex multi-tooth treatments, offering a quick, effective and predictable way to transfer a detailed tooth design to the patient’s mouth, using a strong, thixotropic restorative such as G-ænial Universal Injectable.

For additional fracture protection and peace of mind, GC’s everX Flow can be applied as a dentine replacement at the start of the treatment. Additionally, G-Premio BOND can assist with a quick bonding procedure to reduce sensitivity caused by wear.