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 children and adolescents. The study group was established in 1991/1992 and consisted of 77 participants between 8 and 15 years old. All participants were re-examined in 1994. The interval between the first and second examination was approximately 32 months. Each participant was scored for tooth wear of the anterior teeth of both jaws according to the Incisal wear Index (IwI) and the number of permanent teeth and the tooth types present were recorded at each examination. The results showed that the pattern of incisal wear had been maintained during the observation period. Severity of incisal wear increased as the number of teeth increased. The strength of the relationship between incisal wear and the number of teeth decreased during the observation period. At the same time, the number of teeth and the size of the wear increments were negatively correlated indicating that the rate of wear progression decreased as the number of teeth increased.