Swedish dental journal. Supplement
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The aim of this thesis was to explore aspects of dental erosion by investigating its prevalence among young Saudi men and young children, develop a system for its assessment and to evaluate various tentative background factors that may be associated with its occurrence. Saudi military inductees (n = 95) were subjected to questionnaire and clinical examination, including recordings of severity of dental erosion and a number of other oral health parameters. The system applied for grading the severity of dental erosion showed an intraexaminer agreement of 78%. ⋯ Consumption of soft drinks, amount of palatal plaque on maxillary anterior teeth and salivary urea concentration are some factors related to erosion. The presence of dental erosion in children is likely to be associated with a number of general health and dietary factors but is also aggravated by the relatively more rapid progression of erosion in the deciduous teeth. Drinking method seems to be an important factor in the risk of developing dental erosion.