Assessment of occlusal tooth wear in sports players

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate whether contact sports affect attrition, by comparing and analyzing the degree and quantity of attrition in sports major students to those of non-sports major students.Materials and methods: Thirty sports major students and thirty non-sports major students participated in this study. Maxillary and mandibular dental casts were fabricated and were assessed by Hooper’s new tooth wear index to grade the degree of attrition. The casts were also digitally scanned and rendered as three-dimensional virtual models to measure the quantity of attrition. A questionnaire was prepared to investigate the correlation between attrition and its various potential factors. Independent t-test, Fisher’s exact test and linear correlation were used and teeth were grouped by tooth type (molars, premolars, canines and incisors), by dental arch (maxillary and mandibular arch) and by total dentition for statistical analysis. Results: Sports major students revealed significantly higher Hooper’s new tooth wear index scores for maxillary premolars and incisors, and mandibular molars, premolars and incisors in comparison to the non-sports major students. Mandible of the sports major students presented substantially higher score for the Hooper’s new tooth wear index score per dental arch. Sports major students displayed significantly higher in quantity of attrition for maxillary molar, mandibular molar, premolar and canine. Furthermore maxilla, mandible and total dentition of the sports major students were all substantially higher in quantity of attrition. The demographic data revealed that sports major students were significantly younger in age, heavier in weight, and more aware of their attrition status than the non-sports major students. Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, the following conclusions were made:1. Contact

sports affect the degree and quantity of attrition. 2. Sports major students present significantly higher degree of attrition with Hooper''s new tooth wear index than non-sports major students. 3. Sports major students present significantly larger quantity of attrition when measuring the attrition surface area than non-sports major students.