Human tooth wear in the past and the present: tribological mechanisms, scoring systems, dental and skeletal compensations.
Archives of Oral Biology. 2012-03-01; 57(3): 214-229
DOI: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2011.08.021
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d’Incau E(1), Couture C, Maureille B.
Author information:
(1)Université Bordeaux Segalen, Faculté d’Odontologie, Bordeaux, France.
Comment in
Arch Oral Biol. 2012 Mar;57(3):211-3.
This review of human tooth wear describes the fundamental mechanisms underlying
this process. Using the tribological approach they can be systematised and this
in turn aids our understanding of them. In past populations wear was ubiquitous,
intense, abrasive and physiological as it was related to their food and their
technologies. In these populations, it affected the proximal surfaces, and the
occlusal surfaces which modified the occlusal plane profoundly. To categorise
this wear many different classification systems are used, from which we can
determine diet, cultural changes and the age at death of individuals. They also
illustrate the evolution of certain functional dental and skeletal compensations
in the masticatory apparatus such as continuous dental eruption, mesial drift of
the arches and incisor lingual tipping which can then be monitored. These
physiological adaptations related mainly to function and ontogenesis can also be
found in present-day populations where wear is moderate, although they are much
less obtrusive. Apart from certain pathological cases associated with a specific
parafunction, iatrogenic tooth brushing or an eating disorder and encouraged by
an acid environment, they are the result of a physiological process that should
not be halted. To ensure this, it is essential to prevent lesions related to
tooth wear, to detect them early and establish a reliable diagnosis. Types of
tooth wear that had remained unchanged since the origin of humanity have
undergone profound changes in a very short space of time. Today’s tribochemical
pathological model has replaced the abrasive physiological model of the past.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.