Heater-induced head-disc contacts can cause highly localized wear of the pole tip. We found that scanning electron microscopy and low beam-current focused ion beam imaging are suited at providing a map of the entire pole tip surface and quickly identify the location and shape of heater-induced wear. For longitudinal heads, the imaging can reveal detailed structure near the writer gap. By measuring the topography near the pole tip using atomic force microscopy (AFM), one can retrieve quantitative wear information. Using unburnished parts as controls, the accuracy of the AFM method reported here is about 1nm. We found transmission electron microscopy and Auger electron spectroscopy to be less effective in quantifying wear.