Non-carious dental lesions: etiology and clinical diagnosis. Literature review

Abstract

Non-carious dental lesions comprise a set of processes that are characterized by the loss or pathological wear of the hard tissues of the tooth, such as enamel and dentin. In the initial stage, diagnosis is difficult, when the lesion is increasing and if it is not treated in time or the risk factors are modified, it can progressively affect the dental pulp. These injuries have in- creased in recent years, due to the longer tIme in the mouth, accompanied by parafunctional habits and highly acidic diets, to this is besides the stress that also causes loss of tooth structure. Therefore, not all loss of mineralized tooth tissue is caused by a bacterial load. These non-carious lesions differ in their etiology, their clinical evaluation and description must be very meticulous, since many clinical characteristics can generate an erroneous diagnosis and the- refore an unpredictable treatment, the existence of combinations between lesions must be taken into consideration .

Objective: To know the etiology and clinical characteristics of each lesion, in order to make a timely and safe diagnosis. The review was carried out through an internet search in the Hinari, Science Direct, and academic Google search engines, reviewing original articles and bibliographic reviews between the years 2014- 2019. Conclusion: Non-carious dental lesions have multifactorial etiologies, differential clinical characteristics, and there may be a combination of several pathologies.