Stress-induced cervical lesions: review of advances in the past 10 years.

The accumulation of experimental and clinical evidence during the past decade has significantly contributed to the understanding of the role of occlusally generated tensile stress in the etiology of certain noncarious cervical lesions of teeth. More important, this knowledge has led to the understanding of the reasons why traditional restorative treatments of these stress-induced cervical lesions fail. The case of failure can be attributed to the occlusally generated stresses that are concentrated at the cervical region and result in debonding, leakage, retention failure, and, ultimately, restorative failure. With the new understanding, restorative approaches that combine chemical adhesion and restorative materials of appropriate elastic properties show promise of long-term success.