Prevalence of erosive tooth wear in risk groups.

Individuals have different risks for developing erosive lesions depending on background, behavioural, dietary and medical variables. It is anticipated that people with regular impact of gastric juice, i.e. patients with eating disorders and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) have a specially high risk of developing dental erosions; the same could be true for those with special diets, regular consumption of acidic beverages, medicine and drug intake and occupational exposure to acids. Eating disorders are associated with an increased occurrence, severity and risk for dental erosion, even though not all bulimic patients show a pathological level of tooth wear. There seems also to be a tendency that in the case of GERD, erosion is more common and more severe than in healthy controls. Regarding exogenous causes, many studies, though not all, document a positive association between the consumption of acidic beverages and dental erosions and there seems to be a dose-response relationship; however, further studies are necessary for a final statement. The same applies for the association between drug or medication intake or special diet and erosion prevalence. Though only few studies exist, there seems to be a tendency for an increase of erosion prevalence amongst persons abusively consuming alcohol. Some studies show an increased risk for dental erosion for employees testing wine or working in acid processing factories. Even though some associations between acid impact and erosion prevalence appear clear, the number of studies is small. There is a lack of controlled prevalence studies, making it difficult to give final statements for all risk groups.