Original article
Relationship between malocclusion, orthodontic treatment, and tooth wear

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2007.11.030Get rights and content

Introduction

Although the association between orthodontic treatment and dental health has been studied previously, no studies have hitherto investigated whether the need for, or the receipt of, orthodontic treatment leads to differences in tooth wear in the long term.

Methods

In this retrospective, cross-sectional, association study, an index specifically designed for dental study casts was used to examine tooth wear in 307 adults aged 30 to 31 years.

Results

The men showed significantly higher levels of tooth wear than did the women. No significant differences in tooth wear in relation to need for or receipt of orthodontic treatment were recorded. Likewise, there appeared to be no significant association between tooth wear and reported intake of acidic drinks and foods.

Conclusions

Neither the need for nor the provision of orthodontic treatment contributes to increased tooth wear.

Section snippets

Material and methods

In 1981, 3420 South Glamorgan children (South Wales, United Kingdom) in their first year of secondary education were screened for various occlusal traits (deep overbite, prominent incisors, anterior crossbite, anterior spacing, missing incisors, exposed maxillary gingivae, and severe anterior crowding). Nonwhite children and those already wearing orthodontic appliances were excluded. Through disproportionate stratified sampling, a study cohort of 1018 subjects (aged 11-12 years) with various

Results

In 2000, 146 men and 191 women (n = 337) were examined. Since 30 sets of study casts were used for the reliability study, the main study was based on the casts for 307 participants (133 men, 174 women). Frequencies for the ICON groups are shown in Table I.

For the reliability study, the whole-mouth mean tooth-wear score was 2.77 (SD, 0.43). The minimum and maximum values were 1.78 and 4.09. The intraexaminer and interexaminer reliability values were substantial and fair, respectively (kappa =

Discussion

Although longitudinal studies of tooth wear in relation to occlusion16, 17 and in subjects who have undergone orthodontic treatment18 have been conducted, none to date has investigated whether there are differences in subjects with varying orthodontic treatment need or compared the effect of orthodontic treatment vs no treatment.

The selection of a study cohort with various orthodontic treatment needs through disproportionate stratified sampling enabled the creation of subgroups large enough to

Conclusions

  • 1.

    Molars and canines were most severely affected by tooth wear.

  • 2.

    Statistically significant differences were recorded between the sexes in relation to total mean and mean incisor wear. Men experienced more tooth wear than did women. There were no statistically significant differences between the subgroups in respect of need for or receipt of orthodontic treatment.

  • 3.

    There was no correlation between tooth wear and mean intakes of acidic foods or drinks. However, mean incisor tooth wear was significantly

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  • Cited by (14)

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      Citation Excerpt :

      Malocclusions such as those with increased overbites and edge-to-edge or cusp-to-cusp relationship of teeth have been related to higher levels of tooth wear. Previous studies on this topic used study groups, not necessarily representing the general population, and observed a range of relationships between tooth wears and either malocclusions or deviated occlusal traits37–45 (Table 3). It appears that malocclusions and normal occlusions present various patterns and degrees of tooth wear46,47 and this should not be considered pathological, but a consequence of different inter-occlusal arrangements.47

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    The authors report no commercial, proprietary, or financial interest in the products or companies described in this article.

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