In-vitro Investigation of Abrasive Properties of Oral Jewellery on Enamel

Objectives: Oral and peri-oral body piercing has increased in popularity over the past decade. The dental literature has reported complications of oral piercings, gingival recession and enamel chipping. There is limited knowledge of the abrasive effect of jewellery on human enamel and dentine despite some manufacturers claiming reduced abrasivity. This study aimed to investigate the abrasivity of five commonly used oral jewellery materials on human enamel. Methods: Five materials used in oral jewellery were investigated: surgical grade stainless steel, titanium, titanium covered with coloured physical vapour deposit (PVD), plastic and ART-tech. Five flattened enamel samples for each material were embedded in a resin block and polished with sequentially finer powders culminating in 0.2 µm Alpha Alumina powder. Samples were taped to expose a window of enamel 2 mm wide and aligned in the well of a custom made brushing machine filled with artificial saliva. The jewellery test materials were fixed to the moveable arm of the brushing machine for 20,000 cycles, at 100 strokes per minute under a load of 200 grams. Results: Mean (SD) enamel loss for each material: stainless steel -20.36 µm (0.16 µm), titanium -14.06 µm (4.81 µm) , titanium+PVD -5.69 µm (1.89 µm), plastic -0.35 µm (0.16 µm), ART-tech (-5.64 µm (3.53 µm). Conclusion: A range of abrasivity was demonstrated between five popular materials used in oral and peri-oral jewellery. There was no statistically significant difference between the abrasivity of ART tech and titanium+PVD. Statistically significant differences were noted between all other materials.