Diagnostic, Measurement, and Monitoring Performance of Intraoral Scanner-Based Workflows for Erosive Tooth Wear: A Narrative Review of Clinical and Experimental Evidence

Background: Erosive tooth wear (ETW) requires reliable documentation of severity and progression. Intraoral scanner (IOS)-based workflows can generate serial three-dimensional datasets, but their diagnostic and measurement performance depends on acquisition, registration, and analysis procedures. Objective: To review the diagnostic, measurement, and monitoring performance of IOS-based workflows for ETW. Methods: PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Scopus were searched on 1 September 2026 without date or language restrictions, supplemented by reference-list and citation searching. Clinical diagnostic, agreement, longitudinal, method-comparison, and experimental validation studies were considered. Methodological quality was appraised narratively and matched to study design, and findings were synthesised by evidence domain because designs, reference standards, units of analysis, scanners, software, and outcomes were heterogeneous. Results: Twenty clinical and experimental reports published between 2016 and 2026 were discussed. Direct clinical evidence was limited. One 2026 study reported high sensitivity but lower specificity for scan-based assessment relative to clinical BEWE. Experimental studies generally detected progressive surface loss, but performance varied by scanner, software, registration method, lesion severity, and outcome metric. Longitudinal studies supported quantitative documentation, although alignment failures, clustered observations, and overlapping cohorts limited inference. Conclusions: Predominantly small and heterogeneous evidence suggests that IOS-based workflows may be useful adjuncts for ETW documentation and longitudinal monitoring. They should complement rather than replace clinical assessment. System-specific thresholds should not be generalised without standardised prospective clinical validation.