Dental Anatomy
Author: Dr. Alison V. Berger, DMD, FAGD
Have you ever asked the question to your dentist, “what are all those names you are calling out?”. Well, let me clarify! Whenever we perform a comprehensive exam we start calling out some terms that help to orient ourselves to a specific site within a tooth or the oral cavity.
Here are some of the most common ones (the surfaces with a tooth are the following):
- Occlusal – chewing surface of the back (posterior) teeth
- Incisal – biting surface of a front (anterior) tooth
- Cervical – “neck” of the tooth. This is the area of the tooth right at the gumline.
- Mesial – tooth – to – tooth contact facing the front of the mouth
- Distal – tooth-to-tooth contact facing the back of the mouth
- Buccal – surface of any tooth that faces the cheek
- Lingual – surface of any tooth that faces the tongue or the roof of the mouth.
And, of course, each tooth has a specific number designated to it. For the permanent teeth we use numbers 1-32, and for baby teeth we use letters A-T. The order starts with the wisdom tooth on the top right side of your mouth and continues all the way across the arch on the left back, #1-16. We drop down on the left with #17, and continue across the arch to end at the bottom right wisdom tooth #32. Baby teeth go in the same direction starting from A-J on the top and K-T on the bottom.
Of course there are so many other terms we use to describe the position, appearance and descriptors of areas and pathology in the mouth. These terms are used among the dental professionals to communicate and obtain a better “picture” of what the specific scenario or case involves. It also a way for us to communicate with your dental insurance and objectively describe the procedures we have performed.
Comments are closed.