Diagnosing tooth wear with the TWES 2.0 in dental practice

While the incidence of caries is decreasing due to good prevention, the incidence of tooth wear is increasing, especially in young adults. Over the years, a variety of diagnostic schemes have been proposed to identify tooth wear patients. Of these, only the Tooth Wear Evaluation System (TWES) provided a multi-stage examination consisting of a basic and an extended diagnostic module. An updated version, TWES 2.0, was recently released. The first module, Tooth Wear Screening, serves to identify patients with relevant findings. The second module, Tooth Wear Status, consists of a comprehensive charting procedure in patients with positive screening results, including tooth wear severity grading for each individual tooth, signs and symptoms indicative for pathological tooth wear, and the causes of the tooth wear. This article explains the practical procedure for digitally recording and interpreting the corresponding findings using special software (CMDbrux) and the resultant treatment based on an actual case example. Keywords: tooth wear, Tooth Wear Screening, Tooth Wear Status, Tooth Wear Evaluation System (TWES) 2.0, bruxism, CMDfact, CMDbrux, minimally invasive restoration