A brief history of quantitative wear analysis with an appeal for a holistic view on dental wear processes

Abstract

This chapter is a comprehensive overview about the development in the field of quantitative wear analysis during the last 20 years. It focuses on specific interdisciplinary approaches that either introduced new viewpoints or solved technical problems, and in particular guided our projects within the DFG research unit 771 at the University of Hamburg. The scope of our group’s interest facilitates the historical shift from qualitative to quantitative wear analysis. Our research was driven by the urge to gain a deeper understanding of wear, which is much more than just traces, and develop a holistic view of the wear process on diverse materials. We start with a condensed historical review of selected developments, focus on the major debates that have influenced our understanding of tooth wear as a part of oral food processing, and set the context of our work within the larger theoretical framework. We show examples that the field of dental wear analyses is evolving on all scales, and that we are only beginning to comprehend the complex dental wear process as one factor amongst many driving evolution through dental adaptation. In particular, the combined studies based on museum material, in vivo, and in vitro experiments have shed new light on the importance of abrasives in the wear process, but also raised new questions for future research. A brief history of quantitative wear analyses with an appeal for a holistic view on dental wear processes