This document provides an overview of dental morphology and tooth anatomy. It discusses the parts of the tooth including the crown, root, cervical line, and defines anatomical vs clinical crowns and roots. It describes the primary and permanent dentitions, including their dental formulas. It also covers dental notation systems including the universal, Palmer, and FDI methods for identifying individual teeth.

1. Dental Morphology
Dr. Ridwana Kawsar
BDS (CMC), BCS (Health)
MS (Conservative Dentistry &Endodontics - BSMMU)
Lecturer, Dept. of Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics
Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College( ShSMC)
Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka

2. Dr. Ridwana Kawsar

3. Introduction
 Type of Dentition
 Dental formula and Notation
 Anatomical landmarks
 Chronology of teeth

4. The subject Tooth Morphology involves the study of the
anatomical topography of teeth.

5. Each tooth has two parts: crown and root, separated by a
cervical line or cementoenamel junction (CEJ).

6. Two types of crown terminologies are used.
1. Anatomical crown: It refers to the
crown (entire) which is covered by
enamel, regardless of whether it is
completely erupted or not.
Crown
2. Clinical crown: It refers to the crown which
is visible clinically, and it is what one sees
when looking into the mouth. The height of
the clinical crown is determined by the
position of the gingival margin.

7. • The size of the anatomical crown remains
constant throughout the lifetime of the
tooth, except in cases of attrition or any
other physical wearing of tooth surface.
• The clinical crown may be smaller than the
anatomical crown, such as in a newly
erupted tooth where only a part of the
anatomical crown is visible and the cervical
portion of the crown is still covered by
gingiva.
• The clinical crown can also be larger than
the anatomical crown in cases where there
has been recession of the gingiva with root
exposure.

9. Root
The portion of the tooth covered by cementum is known
as the root.
The tooth may have either a single root or multiple roots.
Single roots are seen in anterior teeth, mandibular
premolars and maxillary second premolars. Multiple roots
are seen in molars and premolars. In maxillary first
premolars and mandibular molars, two roots are present,
and in maxillary molars, three roots are present.
Bifurcation or trifurcation is the term used for the division
of the root into two or three segments, i.e., bifurcation is
seen in maxillary first premolars and mandibular molars
and trifurcation is seen in maxillary molars.

10. On the basis of whether the root is visible in the oral cavity, two types of root terminologies are used:
Anatomical root: Clinical root:
It refers to the root that is below the CEJ and is
covered with cementum, a bone-like substance
that facilitates anchorage of the tooth in its bony
socket (the alveolus).
It refers to the part of tooth that is under the
gingiva and not exposed to the oral cavity.
The height of the clinical root is determined by the
position of the gingival margin.
The size of the anatomical root remains constant
throughout the lifetime of the tooth, except in
cases of resorption of the root.
It may be longer than the anatomical root such as
in newly erupted teeth where the part of the
crown that is not erupted is considered part of the
clinical root. It may also be shorter than the
anatomical root in elderly persons, where there is
gingival recession and part of the anatomical root
is exposed to the oral cavity.

11. • The cervical line separates the
anatomical crown from the
anatomical root.
• It is the junction between two
tissues of the tooth, enamel and
cementum, and hence is known
as the cementoenamel
junction or simply the CEJ.
• This region of the tooth is also
called the cervix of the tooth
because it appears constricted
between the crown and the root
portions.
Cervical Line

12. Posterior tooth showing clinical and anatomical
crown and clinical and anatomical root.

14. In their lifetime, humans develop two sets
of dentition: primary and permanent.
Dentition is the term used to describe
all the teeth present in the upper and
lower jaw bones.

17. Anterior Posterior

18. Primary dentition is the first set of teeth to be
seen in the mouth of a child from the age of 8
months to 6 years.
It is also referred to as deciduous dentition.
Milk teeth, baby teeth, predecessor teeth or
lacteal dentition are some of the other names
for these teeth.
All these teeth eventually shed by the age of
12–13 years and are replaced by permanent
dentition.
Primary Dentition
Primary dentition comprises 20 teeth, of which
10 are present in the upper jaw or the maxillary
arch and 10 are present in the lower jaw or the
mandibular arch.
These two sets of teeth in either jaw are
subdivided into the right and left quadrants by
the midsagittal plane or the midline or median
line of the face, with five teeth in each
quadrant.
The deciduous tooth next to the midline is the
central incisor, followed by the lateral incisor,
canine, first molar and second molar in each
quadrant (five teeth).
So, on the basis of the number and type of teeth
present, the dental formula for primary
dentition is

20. Permanent dentition is the second set of teeth to
develop in the humans and is seen from the age
of 6 years till death.
It is also referred to as secondary dentition.
Permanent dentition is also referred to as adult
teeth.
Permanent Dentition Permanent dentition comprises 32 teeth, of
which 16 are present on each jaw.
The permanent tooth next to the midline is the
central incisor, followed by the lateral incisor,
canine, first premolar, second premolar, first
molar, second molar and third molar in each
quadrant (eight teeth).
So, on the basis of the number and type of
teeth present, the dental formula for permanent
dentition is:

22. Permanent dentition is subdivided
into two types: succedaneous and
non-succedaneous teeth.
The succedaneous teeth replace
deciduous dentition. These include
the permanent anterior teeth,
which replace the primary anterior
teeth, and permanent premolars,
which replace the primary molars.
The non-succedaneous teeth are
the permanent molars since these
teeth do not replace primary
dentition and erupt in the space
distal to deciduous dentition.

24. In humans, both the deciduous and permanent
teeth combined together consist of 52 teeth in
the entire lifetime, i.e. 20 primary teeth and 32
permanent teeth; so it becomes necessary for
the identification of a particular tooth.
For the proper identification of a particular
tooth, the dentition, arch, quadrant and tooth
name has to be written in a particular order,
such as permanent maxillary right central
incisor.
Primary Permanent
Upper Lower
Right Left
Name of the specific tooth

25. In dental practice, it is necessary to
maintain clinical records. The full
anatomical name, however is, inconvenient
in a clinical situation and may have
problems in terms of international
understanding. In clinical practice, some
“shorthand” system of tooth notation
is necessary for recording data.
Several systems of dental notation have
been used over the years, and the three
most common tooth numbering systems
are as follows:

27. The universal system notation for the entire primary dentition is as follows:

28. The following universal notation designates the entire permanent dentition:

30. The Palmer notation system for the entire primary dentition is as follows:
The arches are divided into quadrants maxillary right central incisor, the designation is A

31. The Palmer notation for the entire permanent dentition is as follows:

32. A two-digit system proposed by
Fédération Dentaire Internationale
(FDI) for both the primary and
permanent dentitions has been
adopted by the World Health
Organization and accepted by other
organizations, such as the
International Association for Dental
Research. The FDI system of tooth
notation is as follows.

33. For the primary teeth:
Numeral 5 indicates the maxillary right side, and 6 indicates the maxillary left side. The second number of the two-
digit number is the tooth number for each side. The number 8 indicates the mandibular right side, and the
number 7 indicates the mandibular left side. The second number of the two-digit system is the tooth number.
Thus, for example, the number 51 refers to the maxillary right central incisor.

34. For the permanent teeth:

36. OVERVIEW

37. Parts of tooth

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