Wear may result from physiological or pathological conditions and may be desirable, as in the reduction of an overcontoured restoration, or undesirable as in the production of cervical abrasion cavities. A variety of methods, including clinical testing, the use of wear machines and the measurement of related properties such as hardness or coefficient of friction have been used to investigate wear of tooth tissue and of dental materials. Because these methods may not reveal the nature of the wear process recent work has been directed to the study of surface failure resulting from a single sliding contact. Many clinical studies have been conducted but they are time consuming and difficult to quantify, nor do they allow of evaluation of different parameters contributing to the wear. Laboratory simulation of wear has been shown to be valuable in comparing materials of the same group but between-group comparisons may give anomalous results. The most rewarding studies have been those using a single or small number of passes of a suitable abrading point over the material since these permit determination of the actual process by which wear is produced.