Smith and Knight developed an index to measure wear in teeth. This can be used to monitor the patient over time and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions. The authors are from Guy's Hospital in London and High Wycombe in England.
Scoring:
(1) Each tooth has 4 surfaces, each of which is graded – cervical (neck), buccal, labial and occlusal-incisal.
(2) The maximum number of teeth evaluated is 32.
(3) Heavily restored surfaces and missing teeth are not recorded.
Tooth
Finding
Grade
buccal, labial or occlusal
no loss of enamel surface characteristics
0
loss of enamel surface characteristics
1
loss of enamel exposing dentine for less than one third of surface
2
loss of enamel exposing exposing dentine for more than one third of dentine
3
complete loss of enamel
4
exposure of pulp or secondary dentine
4
incisal
no loss of enamel surface characteristics
0
loss of enamel surface characteristics
1
loss of enamel just exposing dentine
2
loss of enamel and substantial loss of dentine but not exposing pulp or secondary dentine
3
exposure of pulp or secondary dentine
4
cervical
no change in contour
0
minimal loss of contour
1
defect less than 1 mm deep
2
defect 1-2 mm deep
3
defect > 2 mm
4
exposure of pulp or secondary dentine
4
score for each tooth =
= SUM(grade for all 4 surfaces)
Interpretation:
• minimum score for a tooth: 0
• maximum score for a tooth: 16
• If all 32 teeth are evaluated, the maximum score is 128.
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