The accuracy and precision of wear testing and wear facet analyses: The two sides of the story.

A critical examination of the literature for dental wear publications highlighted three distinct areas, clinical data, laboratory data and the simulation of the clinical situation data. The imprecision of the clinical data values from direct and indirect in vivo methods renders the clinical data compromised at best. Laboratory data showed a focus on finding a correlation between simplistic laboratory abrasive wear resistance studies and established materials science laboratory techniques, but with no actual correlation identified. Replication of the masticatory cycle in the mouth in the form of an oral wear simulator has focussed more on the wear testing devices rather than the wear quantification methods. As a result, the data acquisition variables in the x- and y-planes need to be examined to consider how they can influence the accuracy and precision of the laboratory wear measurements recorded in the dental literature. The current approach was undertaken using the teaching tool outlined in "The First Three Questions". [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]