TOOTH WEAR LESIONS: CAUSES AND ORAL DISTRIBUTION IN PATIENTS ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES DENTAL CLINIC, ONDO

Introduction: Tooth wear describes the non-carious loss of tooth tissue as a result of the interaction of three processes, which may occur in isolation or in combination: attrition, erosion, and abrasion. The possible etiological or risk factors leading to these oral diseases include negative oral hygiene practices, para-function and consumption of acidic foods. This study was done to determine the association between some socio-demographic variables like age and sex and tooth wear lesions and to identify possible risk factors in the aetiology and oral distribution of tooth wear lesions among patients in University of Medical Sciences teaching hospital dental clinic. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was used to assess the cause and oral distribution of tooth wear among patients in University of Medical Sciences teaching hospital dental clinic, Ondo. A well-structured questionnaire that included the Smith and Knight tooth wear Index, was used for data collection. The sample size for this study was based on a previous 3-month clinic attendance and using Leslie kish's formula and 102 participants were included, and the data was analysed using SPSS version 25. Results: A total number of 9,792 surfaces were examined. 6,000 of which had tooth wear. The tooth wear prevalence rate of 61.3% was recorded in this study sample. Tooth wear was found to be more common among the elder proportion of participants with severity increasing with age. In this study erosion was the most prevalent form of tooth wear and constitutes 28.5% of the total number of worn surfaces, followed by attrition 15.8% and abrasion 12.4% Conclusion: Tooth wear was more prevalent among the males than females and the more with increasing age, Tooth wear was more common and more severe in age groups around 40- 49 and 50+. There was a statistically significant relationship between nail biting and tooth wear. There were no statistically significant relationships between brushing techniques and frequency and tooth wear. Variables regarding consumption of potentially erosive diet also showed no statistically significant relationships with tooth wear. Keywords: Toothwear, abfraction, attrition, abrasion, erosion, aetiology, prevalence.