Prevention and therapy of erosion – new strategies

At first, reasonable approaches for primary prevention will be suggested. Most important is the appropriate information about causes of erosive tooth damage within the scope of the established prevention strategies. Further measures related to the population depend upon the prevalence of erosion and should be discussed specifically for the country in question. Secondary prevention focuses on the detection of the early stages of erosive lesions and should be followed by individually tailored causal and, if necessary, symptomatic measures.

This leads to the main topic of the presentation which is the current state of knowledge about effective causal and symptomatic strategies for therapy. Causal therapy essentially means the identification and elimination of the acid source whilst symptomatic measures aim to strengthen or protect the tooth surface so that both erosive demineralisation and loss of microhardness are inhibited. Substances that lead to acid resistant mineral precipitations in or on the tooth surface or that form permanent coatings are suitable for this. An update on the role of fluorides and other active ingredients will be presented. The presentation will end up with an illustrative flow chart and case reporting.