The rise and rise of toothwearology

Welcome to this special issue of Dental Update on tooth wear. First, we had cariology, then we had periodontology, so I suggest that we now need ‘toothwearology’, given that this is something that general dentists will see in their patients, young and old, on a regular basis. There are worldwide scientific data to back up this statement, with van't Spiker and colleagues collecting data from 10 different countries and concluding that the percentage of adults with severe tooth wear (TW) increased from 3% at 20 years to 17% at 70 years.¹ More recently, Schluter and Luka² used an innovative approach to measure the prevalence and relevance of tooth wear, by counting the number of publications on the subject from 1965 to 2017. In total they searched 168 articles, finding that, globally, TW affected between 20% and 45% of adults' permanent teeth, in the UK between 3% and 100% in permanent teeth were affected. The number of publications increased from almost zero in 1965 to over 350 in the period between 2010 and 2017. Moreover, there are medical implications. A recent study³ has shown that individuals with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) have a two-to four-fold increased odds of also presenting with erosive TW, compared with individuals who do not have GORD. Turning that on its head, patients who present with erosive TW and/or GORD should have timely referrals to gastroenterology services.