RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INCISAL TOOTH WEAR AND THE INCREASING NUMBER OF PERMANENT TEETH IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

The material presented in this report was derived from a longitudinal study of the development and progress of incisal tooth wear In childre n and adolescents, The study group was established in 1991/1992 and co nsisted of 77 participants between 8 and 15 years old. All participant s were re-examined in 1994. The interval between the first and second examination was approximately 32 months. Each participant was scored f or tooth wear of the anterior teeth of both jaws according to the Inci sal wear Index (IwI) and the number of permanent teeth and the tooth t ypes present were recorded at each examination. The results showed tha t the pattern of incisal wear had been maintained during the observati on period, Severity of incisal wear increased as the number of teeth i ncreased. The strength of the relationship between incisal wear and th e number of teeth decreased during the observation period. At the same time, the number of teeth and the size of the wear increments were ne gatively correlated indicating that the rate of wear progression decre ased as the number of teeth increased.