ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:Tooth wear is the physiological change that accompanied by a person’s life, type and nature, maxil ary and mandibular occlusion status, physical status, and living environment may affect it. OBJECTIVE:To review the occurrence and development of tooth wear, as wel as research on the morphology of wear surface. METHODS:The PubMed database was searched by the first author for the articles from January 1952 to December 2012. The articles on the generation of tooth wear facets, macroscopic and microscopic studies of occlusal wear facets, wear measurement method, relationship between tooth wear and oral diseases, and application of tooth wear facets in forensic research were included. The key words were“tooth, wear, diet, information, dentistry, anthropology”in English. A total of 59 articles were included according to the inclusion criteria for review. RESUTLS AND CONCLUSION:With the development of wearing, some oral clinical symptoms may occur. Just as there are no same fingerprints in the world, the individual tooth wear facet is unique. Therefore, the research on occlusal wear facets has great significance for understanding the diet habits, cultural development, age and other information, as wel as for dentistry, anthropology and forensic science. The macroscopic and microscopic study of tooth wear surface can provide a large amount of individual information. The current studies on tooth wear facets cannot ful y exhibit al the implicated information, so the further studies are needed.