Are dental patients able to perceive erosive tooth wear on anterior teeth?: An internet-based survey assessing awareness and related action

BackgroundErosive tooth wear (ETW) is irreversible loss of dental hard tissue. The authors examined patients’ ability to recognize ETW relative to sound teeth and teeth with caries.MethodsUsing Amazon’s crowdsourcing service, the authors recruited participants (N = 623) to view standardized images of buccal surfaces of teeth (sound, ETW, or caries). Participants reported whether a dental condition existed (yes or no), likelihood to seek care, and esthetic attractiveness for teeth with no, initial, moderate, or severe signs of ETW or caries.ResultsDental patients showed poor recognition of cases of ETW, especially compared with sound and caries-affected teeth at each level of severity. Patients were less likely to schedule a dental appointment for care or treatment of teeth with ETW than for teeth with caries at each level of severity. Patients also found ETW more esthetically attractive than caries at each level of severity and found initial ETW more attractive than sound teeth.ConclusionsDental patients struggle to recognize ETW, in general and compared with caries, at each level of severity and particularly for early stages of ETW. These recognition difficulties likely arise, in part, from tooth esthetic attractiveness standards (smooth and shiny teeth look more esthetic), possibly leading to lack of appropriate care-seeking behavior.Practical ImplicationsThis internet-based tool may be used to assess dental patients’ awareness and ability to recognize cases of ETW. Improved patient awareness might lead to seeking professional care to prevent or delay ETW progression.     

Influence of intra‐oral sensory impairment by anaesthesia on food comminution and mixing in dentate subjects

Sensory input from sensory receptors regarding food morsels can affect jaw motor behaviours during mastication. The aim was to clarify the effects of intra‐oral sensory input on the food‐comminuting and food‐mixing capacities of dentate subjects. Eleven dentate subjects without sensory dysfunction in their oro‐facial region participated in this study. Local anaesthesia was achieved on the periodontal structures and on the oral mucosa of the subjects' preferred chewing side by injecting a lidocaine solution with adrenalin. At baseline (control) and after anaesthesia, data on the subjects' food‐comminuting and food‐mixing capacities were gathered. The food‐comminuting capacity was quantified by measuring the degree of pulverisation of peanuts (objective hardness; 45·3 [Newton, N]) after a prescribed 20 chewing strokes. The food‐mixing capacity was measured as the degree of immixture of a two‐coloured paraffin wax cube after 10 chewing strokes. Wax cubes of three different hardness levels were used (soft, medium and hard: 20·3, 32·6 and 75·5 [N], respectively) and were chewed in random order. After anaesthesia, the subjects' food‐comminuting capacity significantly decreased (P < 0·001), as did the food‐mixing capacity for each hardness level of the wax cubes (P < 0·01). A significant correlation was observed between the objective hardness values and the anaesthesia effects for the food‐mixing capacity (P < 0·05), indicating that after anaesthesia, deterioration of the mixing capacity increased as the hardness increased. In conclusion, intra‐oral sensory input can affect both food‐comminuting and food‐mixing capacities.