Evaluation of Tooth Wear and its Causative Risk Factors Amongst Patients Attending Dental Hospital of Karachi

OBJECTIVE: Tooth wear is a term defined as the loss of dental hard tissue in a damaged tooth if there is no existing dental caries or trauma. Tooth wear rarely exists alone and is observed clinically and experimentally in combination. Excessive tooth wear leads to hypersensitivity and exposed dentin. Tooth wear can be classified as attrition, erosion, abrasion. The frequency of normal tooth preservation is greater than ever, thus a better prevalence of tooth wear is experiential in the population. Therefore, the objective of the present cross-sectional study was to evaluate tooth wear and its causative risk factors amongst patients attending the Dental Hospital of Karachi. METHODOLOGY: The current study was a cross-sectional study conducted on adult patients recruited from the Out-Patient Department of Oral Diagnosis from May 2018 - December 2018. A consecutive sampling method was used and 250 adult patients aged 18-45 years were included. Tooth wear was assessed by using Smith and Knight Tooth Wear Index (TWI index).Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS, frequency, percentages were calculated, and a chi-square test was performed to find the association between gender and risk factors. RESULTS: The subject populations of 250 were assessed. Out of which 178 were male (71.2%) and 72 (28.8%) were female with age ranging between 18 to 48 years old. In this study, 92.4% of them were suffering from tooth wear and only 31.2% have extended to the severe stage of the tooth surface loss. CONCLUSION: The present study concluded that there is an association between tooth wear and its risk factors. KEYWORDS: Tooth Wear; Dental Wear; Tooth Wear Indices; Sensitivity and Specificity; Risk Factors.