Long-term survival of direct and indirect restorations placed for the treatment of advanced tooth wear.

Advanced tooth wear was restored with direct resin-based composites (RBCs) in 17 patients, and with indirect ceramo-metal crowns (CMCs) and full gold crowns in 8 other patients. The mean patient age was 64.9 (8.6 SD) years, with each patient having a mean of 13.8 (5.4) restorations. In this retrospective case series study, the mean restoration age was 5.0 (3.0) years for the direct and 5.9 (2.6) years for the indirect restorations. Over 10 years, cumulative survival estimates were 62.0% for direct and 74.5% for indirect restorations (P = 0.23). Survival estimates were 58.9% for anterior RBCs and 70.3% for anterior CMCs (P = 0.06). RBCs usually failed from fractures, and CMCs from complete losses. RBC failures were usually replaced or repaired, while CMC failures often required root canal therapies or extractions. The findings from this relatively small study require confirmation by large long-term controlled clinical trials.