Toothwear is recognised as a major dental problem in both children and adults. The triad of
erosion, attrition and abrasion has been known for many years, and the contribution of erosion to
toothwear is increasing. Dental erosion is the irreversible softening and subsequent loss of dental
hard tissue due to a chemical process of acid dissolution but not involving bacterial plaque acid,
and not directly associated with mechanical or traumatic factors, or with dental caries. Attrition
may be defined as direct tooth-to-tooth contact wear while external foreign agents moving across
and contacting the tooth surface results in abrasion. Erosion usually coexists with attrition and/
or abrasion but one of these factors may be more significant than the others, making differential
diagnosis difficult.
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