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Fares J, Shirodaria S et al. Caries Res 2009; 43: 119–125

The aim of this study was to devise a tooth wear index that could be used to measure particularly the prevalence of enamel wear and be used in population-based studies. The teeth of over one thousand students were examined by three trained and calibrated examiners using a modified tooth wear index based on the 'principles of the Smith and Knight Index'. The index used in this study comprises five scores for enamel and six for dentine. At the intra-examiner level, one examiner had intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) above 0.77, the second examiner 'had a lower ICC for the buccal surfaces of 0.46 and a third examiner had 0.26 for dentine, 0.29 for enamel and 0.43 for enamel on the cervical surfaces'. Notwithstanding 'some challenges in the scoring', the prevalence of toothwear in this 'single convenience sample' would appear common.