A Comparison of Etiology-Derived and Non-Etiology-Derived Indices Utilizing for Erosive Tooth Wear in People with Eating Disorders. The Validation of Economic Value in Clinical Settings

Abstract

Increasing occurrence of non-carious lesions in their various forms and etiologies requires reliable and valid diagnostic tools to register their distribution, severity, and progression and to become helpful in planning treatment. The aim of this work is to evaluate eight selected (etiological and non-etiological) indices of tooth wear/erosion, taking into account the subjective opinion of the researcher/operator and the patients being treated for eating disorders. The research sample included 60 people with symptoms of dental erosion. The study group included 30 patients suffering from eating disorders, recruited from three independent medical institutions providing eating disorder therapy. The control group consisted of 30 patients with no eating disorders, but with dental erosion caused mostly by a low-pH diet. The indices chosen for evaluation were: Tooth Wear Index by Smith and Knight; indexes by Lussi, Johansson et al.; Tooth Wear Index modified by de Carvahlo Sales-Peres et al.; Linkosalo and Markkanen modified by Ganss et al.; and index Oilo et al., BEWE, VEDE. The examination took place during three short visits. The study group (suffering eating disorders) and the control group (without eating disorders) evaluated the indices chosen for this research similarly. In the assessment made by both groups of patients, the usefulness and application benefits of the etiological indices set were not significantly different than in the case of a set of non-etiological indexes. An analogous opinion has been made by the operator/researcher as far, as the following aspects are concerned: the number of indexes criteria, order of difficulty in memorizing criteria and in the procedure of indexes application. According to this research, for the group at risk of dental erosive wear (with or without eating disorders), optimal research tools to evaluate dental wear occurred: index by Lussi, Tooth Wear Index modified by de Carvahlo Sales-Peres et al., BEWE, index by Oilo et al.