By UNCLLS payday loans Written by Thomas E. Dudney, DMD Sunday,
01 March 2009 00:00 In cases when patients present with severe
tooth wear, it is incumbent upon the clinician to determine the
etiology of the wear prior to initiating restorative treatment.
The nature of a patient’s particular type of tooth wear could
adversely affect the long-term success of any proposed
restorative treatment plan. A systematic analysis and diagnosis
of dental wear is essential to determining its etiologies, since
there could be a mechanical cause, a chemical cause, or
combination of causes.1 ATTRITION, ABRASION, AND EROSION There
are essentially 3 types of wear on teeth that clinicians may
encounter: attrition, abrasion, and erosion.2 However, the
literature repeatedly notes that wear mechanisms rarely occur
alone, instead acting in combination with each other.2,3
Attrition is seen often in dentistry and is typically described
as tooth-to-tooth wear caused either by bruxism, tooth grinding,
or any condition in which the teeth