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We have some terms related to anterior and posterior teeth, and I showed you all in the lab (
Monday and Wednesday groups).

*Terms related to the posterior teeth:

º
: (#1)

It͛s not a pyramid; it͛s not curved and flat! But we can

identify 4 ridges for each cusp, for example this is a

posterior tooth, it has this ridge and we call it mesial

ridge, and another one we call it distal ridge ,

why we call it mesial and distal ridge ? Because that's

where it's going, so this ridge is going mesialy and called

mesial cusp ridge, and we have this distal cusp ridge, and we have the ridge that goes this
way buccully and we have this ridge that's called distal ridge, so again we have: mesial ridge ,
distal ridge ,lingual ridge and buccal ridge. Notice that this called buccal ridge because it goes
buccully toward buccal site of the tooth ,and lingual ridge because it goes lingually, so
because we have buccal and lingual ridges sometimes you can get confused because the
lingual ridge of this cusp faces the occlusal surface and the buccal ridge of this cusp also faces
the occlusal surface, so instead of saying buccal and lingual surfaces we use the term
 

, so the ridge of the cusp that faces- or that part of- the occlusal surface can
be called triangular cusp ridge. when two triangular cusps meet and make one continuous
line, and these cusps are both located on mesial or distal surface- they are not obliquely
oriented- we call that a transverse ridge ( #2 ) , for example the cusps that are located at the
mesial part of the tooth. the triangular cusp ( #4 ) and the cusp that faces it on the other side
form a continuous line and we call it a transverse line , but notice that sometimes we have
ridges that do not go transversely, they go obliquely between two cusps located at opposite
corners ,we have cusp at one corner of the tooth and the other one at the opposite corner of
it ,so if you want to draw them by a line this line will not be transverse, will not be

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buccolingual, but it will be oblique! that is why this line is called obliquely ridge ( #3 ) , y
 
          
  
      
, so it͛s one
of the arch traits because it allows you to distinguish between the maxillary molar as a group
from the mandibular molar as a different group.





Now we have a term called fossa, which is a depression, like a valley between tow mountains
and this valley is like the fossa in the tooth, and at the very bottom of the fossa sometimes
we have a pit , which is the deepest point or depression in the fossa ( like any deep hole in
the valley )

For example if you remember in the lab we talked about

marginal ridges; one is mesial and the other is distal

you have here a distal marginal ridge ( the oval ),

and the mesial marginal ridge ( the rectangular ) , for

example this mesial triangular ridge, just distal to it in this

region we have fossa, this fossa we call it triangular fossa

( the arrow ) because it͛s located near the triangular ridges of these cusps.

so the triangular fossa all the time are located at the tooth margins ( we will talk about it in
details later) in the very bottom of the deepest point of these triangular fossa we have a pit,
for example we have here mesial pit ( #2 ) and in the distal triangular fossa we have a distal
pit ( #1 ) , for the premolars we have two triangular cusps because we have one lingually and
another buccully, so if you see the premolars we will not see these two cusps we will see only
the buccal and the lingual; because of that we can see only two triangular fossa and that͛s all ,
but for permanent molar or molars generally in addition to these two fossa ( triangular fossa )
there is a fossa in the center we call it central fossa and the deepest point of this fossa is
called the central pit ( diamond) .

  

We said last time that it's a groove that separates the major parts of the tooth, so what are
the major parts of the tooth?

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Generally any tooth has major parts. These major parts

are the cusps and ridges, so any groove that separates

between one cusp and another cusp or between one

cusp and one ridge is called the developmental groove,

like for example this groove ( bold line ) it separates

between the mesiobuccal and distobuccal cusps, why is it called the buccal groove? It's called
buccal because it goes buccully, and this one here is called distolingual groove (the dashed
line) because it goes distolingually (we will talk about it later when we talk about each tooth
apart).

   

This groove that does not separate any major parts of

the tooth , you can see here these two grooves ( the

bold lines) , these grooves don͛t separate any major

parts of the tooth, they're not located between two

cusps or between a cusp and marginal ridge, so that͛s why we call it the supplemental groove.

Division into thirds

Now we will talk about division into thirds, we usually divide any tooth into three divisions
and we do that in different planes, for example if you take this canine we are facing this labial
surface of this canine we can divide the crown of the canine into incisal third, middle third
and cervical third and we can also divide the crown into: distal third, middle third, mesial
third.

And we can also divide the root into: apical third (because it faces the apex of the root),
middle third and cervical third.

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Also we can divide the crown into thirds but if we see it from its proximal surface from the
distal surface or mesial surface, (now we see this crown from the side so we have: lingual
third, middle third, labial third).

Same here to the posterior teeth; we have distal third, middle third and mesial third. We
have occlusal instead of incisal third, middle third cervical third. And here the same for the
root, and from the proximal site, we have lingual, middle, buccal (instead of labial third).

So these terms are very important for description anatomy.

These slides include all the terms we have mentioned before and you need to know and
memorize all these slides.
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 (I'm sorry I can't put them here cuz I don't have soft copy, so plz go back to the hard copy to get them.

The Dr. mentioned some of them ͙




: Are the distal and mesial surfaces, so if you want to talk about distal or
mesial surfaces but not in a specific way you can use proximal surfaces.

 related to the tip of the root.

 : is along the axis of the tooth , for example if you curve in the tooth and you make a
surface and this surface is parallel to the axis of the tooth, we say it͛s an axial surface so axial
means here along the axis of the tooth.

  means labial and buccal.


: I talked about it in the lab last Monday and today but I͛ll talk a little about it, so
embrasure is a V shaped space between the proximal surfaces of two adjoining teeth in
contact, unfortunately this is the only definition you will find here, but generally teeth don͛t
have flat surfaces as we drew when we were children and if they were flat the contact area of
the tooth is all the tooth , but our teeth are curved so when they meet they meet just at the
contact area not at the whole tooth, so because they meet at the contact area we have a
space above and below this contact area from the four sites,


 
 and the surface that is located here is

called buccal embrasure and this one is called lingual and the

one that͛s located below the contact area we call it

cervical embrasure (the arrow ), which is filled with soft tissue

(Interdental gingiva).



 fissure and groove are the same (developmental fissure or developmental groove is
the same).

  


       

   

 
            

 

   
 
 
      


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: when we have one root that divides into

Two or three roots, the point it divides from is called

the trunk (the area before the one root divides , #1)

when we have three roots (one divides into three)

we call it trifurcation ( #2), root trunk is the cervical part of the root,

First part before it divides.

 
: don͛t worry about it, we know the lingual and buccal sulcus,we know that the sulcus
is the space between the tooth and the lips or cheek , and sulcus is a term of a tooth itself but
don͛t worry about it because you will get confused between the sulcus and fossa .

º  the two teeth meet actually side by side, they meet at an area called the
contact area, this area is not the same for all teeth.

For example: this incisor, it meets with the adjacent

one at (#1) which is a high contact area, and meets

with the other adjacent tooth at (#2) which is low contact area.

So the contact area here isn͛t similar at both sides.

When we say high contact area, we mean toward the

occlusal and Low means toward the gingiva.

A student asked: is the contact area related to the size of the tooth?

DR.: yes it is related to the size of the tooth; big teeth like molars and premolars have wider
contact areas than the small teeth.

So what I want you to know is where the tooth actually contacts another tooth.

The tooth in the picture above has a curvature, the maximum bulging of this curvature is the
area of contact, and this is what we will teach you in carving, we will teach you the maximum

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height of contour which is a term that describes the maximum bulging point in the side of the
tooth.

Heights of the contour are not the same; usually mesial height of contour is higher than distal
height of contour in general.. I͛ll give you this in details later.

here I͛ll show you the Embrasure and what we

mean by embrasure.. it is the area between two teeth

and here this is the buccal embrasure ( #1) and this is

the lingual embrasure ( #2).

Similarly, we have here what͛s called the occlusal embrasure

(#1) and the other one which is called the cervical embrasure

(#2) , but it is not straight.

Now we͛ll start a new topic which is Maxillary Central Incisor.

Permanent incisor:
 
 

We know that the first tooth to appear in the mouth is the mandibular central incisor
followed by the maxillary central incisor then the mandibular lateral incisor and then
the maxillary lateral incisor so this is the sequence of emergence or eruption.

What are the functions of pair of incisors?

1) For cutting; when you actually bite an apple, you will cut this apple, so that͛s why
they are cutters.

2) They also function in Esthetics which is the science of beauty.

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- People without incisors or with pigmented or stained incisors don͛t have good
appearance.. That͛s why they are important in esthetics.

3) For Speech production; without incisors, you don͛t be able to produce perfect
sounds.

When you say ͞F͟ for example, we put the lower lip against the incisal edge of the
upper incisor.. If you don͛t have upper incisors, ͞F͟ will not be produced.

º 




Class traits mean what are the means of characteristics that distinguish incisors from
canines from premolars from molars, incisors as one group.

*What are those characteristics specific for incisors?

-First of all, the incisal part or the incisal two third is flattened mesiodistally and
compressed labiolingually, which means that the incisor is very narrow labiolingually
and wide mesiodistally.

-Secondly, we have long, horizontal mesiodistal biting

edge or what we call the incisal edge. Also we can have

two or more mamelons.. Look at the picture below, this tooth here

has three mamelons or lobes. The mamelons are the incisal edge

of the lobes, so the edge here of the lobe called mamelon.

We all have brothers and we watched their tooth eruption, once they erupt we can see
the mamelons but after few months of using these incisors, (these will be worn out to
be flat and now nobody of us have mamelons.

Also, incisors are characterized by marginal ridges that

are parallel to the long axis.. see here, we have the mesial

marginal ridge (#1) and the distal marginal ridge (#2), these

are visible on anterior teeth only lingually . So these marginal

ridges and their long axis is parallel with the long axis of the

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tooth, but marginal ridges of posterior teeth are perpendicular

to the long axis of the tooth.

Permanent maxillary incisors:

What are the arches traits? meaning how can we distinguish maxillary incisors from
mandibular incisors?

This is an example of maxillary incisor (#1) and this is a mandibular incisor (#2)

Let͛s start with the crown:

First of all, the crown is wider mesiodistally in the upper incisor than the lower incisor
which has narrower mesiodistally crown.

-Secondly, we have a proportion; ½
½
½

 



½:

take the height of the crown of the upper incisor over its width: let͛s assume its height
is 10mm and its width is 8mm >>> 10/8=1.2͙ then take the height of the crown of the
lower incisor and assume it is also 10mm but its width is 5mm >>> 10/5=2͙ we can see
that the proportion of the lower incisor is higher than that of the upper incisor so that͛s
why maxillary incisors have smaller height over width proportion.

Also we have another proportion in another dimension which is   


 :

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Now, take this crown of the upper incisor and measure the mesiodistal that is going to
be over the labiolingual dimension then assume the mesiodistal here is 8mm and the
labiolingual here is 7mm so it will be 8/7͙. Then the crown of the lower incisor, it is 5
over 7, so it will be smaller, so that͛s why if we have the maxillary incisor, we have
greater mesiodistal over labiolingual proportion.

And now regarding the root, also the roots of maxillary incisors have greater mesiodistal
over labiolingual proportion and generally for upper incisors, the roots are conical (—
)
.. If you make a cross section through a maxillary central incisor, you will have a circle
but the mandibular one is labiolingually more than the mesiodistal.. that͛s why we can
identify these teeth based on the shape of the root.

 


The meaning of type trait is how we can distinguish maxillary central incisor from
maxillary lateral incisor.

*Size: The size of maxillary central is bigger than maxillary lateral incisor

*Height / width proportion: I͛ll show you this later when we talk about the lateral
incisor but in general we use the size and height over width proportion because
maxillary lateral incisor is narrower than maxillary central incisor and we also use
mesiodistal over labiolingual proportion in crown and root and we will discuss this when
we talk about lateral incisor.

The maxillary central incisor

Let's start now with permanent maxillary central incisor which is the tooth that we are going to
carve next week, this tooth has 5 surfaces , to be able to describe it properly, we have to
describe it surface by surface , so we will start with the labial surface .

  
 

so now we are looking to the tooth from the labial aspect

it is the widest incisor mesiodistally ( this tooth is the widest )

and this is a type trait because the maxillary lateral incisor

is narrower so that we can use it as a type trait and arch trait.

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This tooth has:

** 3 mamelons; the middle one (#2) is the smallest in width, the mesial one (#1) has raised
shoulder, the distal one (#3) has low shoulder, as you can see here, the middle mamelon is the
smallest one, the mesial one is higher than the distal one (y3ne the tooth has two shoulders,
one is high which is the mesial and the other is low which is the distal).

** 2 labial grooves, because we have 3 mamelons; we have grooves, but these grooves are not
actually grooves; they are just small depressions.

This piece of information that I'm going to say is   ͙

which is the mesioincisal line angle is 90  this angle between

the mesial surface and the incisal surface (the bold angle

at the right), so if you want to know if this

is the mesial surface or the distal surface, simply look for

the 90 angle, the angle which is 90  is located on the

Mesial side and the angle which is rounded and has a low shoulder is on the distal side.

** Mesial contour line is straight but the distal contour is somewhat rounded (curvature), the
distal height of contour (the empty circle) is lower than the mesial height of contour (the bold
circle), they are not at the same level.

- Which  
    
  


‘
Here when we are talking about the height, the higher one is the
nearest to the incisal surface, and the lower is the nearest to the
gingiva. ‘

The mesial height of contour located within the incisal third, but the distal height of contour
located at the junction between the incisal third and the middle third.

** Cementoenamel junction (CEJ) or the cervical line (bold line) is

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 convex cervically (toward the cervix of the tooth ) .

** Root is conical and is inclined distally.

‘    


It is scoop- like (like spoon) and it has a concavity, you all can put your

tongue against palatal surface of maxillary central incisor, you can feel it.

        
      





This is the cingulum which is located at the cervical third of the crown

and we have 2 marginal ridges at the side, between these 3 structures

‘ we have a fossa called   





* Lingual fossa is bordered by:

The mesial and distal ridges and by the cingulum. This fossa is deep in the maxillary central
incisor and it's deeper than the mandibular one. So if you want to distinguish between
maxillary CI and mandibular CI, look at the lingual fossa, if it is deep then we are talking about
the maxillary CI, if it is shallow then it is mandibular CI.

We have prominent cingulum and mesial, distal ridges because of lingual fossa.

* Root is narrower seen from lingual aspect than labial.

 
 


Now let us look at the tooth from the mesial aspect, it is chisel- shaped.

The CEJ (bold curved line) which is curved to the cervical line

(It's convex incisally). The labial height of contour is located

in the cervical third and the lingual height of contour is also

located in the cervical third.

The incisal edge is coincides with the long axis.

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 This information is  , let's imagine a line going through the

long axis of the tooth (the dashed line), this line will pass through the tip of

the incisal edge, this case is in the maxillary CI, in the mandibular CI it's slightly lingual.

And the root is conical.

 
 
 

It's similar to the mesial aspect but we have one difference which is the CEJ is less curved than
seen from distally.

 
 


It's triangular in outline, the labial outline (bold line)

is slightly convex but notice here the lingual outline

(the dashed line) is highly convex, the mesial and lingual

outlines at sharp line angles, the mesial outline is longer

‘ than the distal one. We can also see a labial lobe grooves.

 
About the pulp of this tooth, it looks like the tooth from

outside so the pulp mirrors the external configuration of the tooth.

BUT we have one important thing; we have what we call   

(Bound by circles), as you see here this is the pulp of the tooth,

it looks like the tooth but here in the pulp we have one horn

that goes this way and one horn goes this way, so we have two pulp horns

‘ and only one single root canal.

This is   and the Dr always asks about it in the exam..

- What is the possibility to have second root canal in this tooth? - 0%

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 It's possible to find second root canal in
mandibular CI and the percentage is 30%, ‘
but in maxillary CI it's impossible
‘

This is the maxillary CI from different aspects ‘

The maxillary lateral incisor‘

  
 

It looks like the maxillary CI but this tooth is narrower

mesiodistally and shorter incisocervically, this is a type trait because

we can distinguish between maxillary CI and maxillary LI .

the root is of the same length, but this root generally is more

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rounded so that's why the mesioincisal angle ( the bold line) is more rounded than that of the
maxillary CI, and the distoincisal angle (the dashed line) is very rounded ( like a piece of circle ).
The mesial and distal outlines are also slightly curved.

The heights of contours (the filled circles) are located generally

lower than the height of contours of maxillary CI .

The maxillary HOC is generally higher (near the incisal edge)

The height of contour represents the contact area, the area where tooth come in contact with
the adjacent tooth.

Root is conical and inclined slightly.

   


We see two marginal ridges, cingulum and we

see the fossa which is deeper than maxillary CI ,

and because it's deep; cingulum and two ridges are prominent

Sometimes we may have a pit (the deepest point in the fossa) we

call it   , and sometimes we have a groove that process in the cingulum that actually
originates from that pit we call it lingual   , this is very important because
this tooth is highly attacked by caries because food will be gathered in that pit. But in maxillary
CI and mandibular CI we have less percentage of caries because there's no fossa and pits in
them.

 
 
:

It's similar but the cingulum is more convex, the CEJ is less curved.
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‘

Similar to the mesial aspect.

 
 


This tooth is ovoid, smaller mesiodistal than CI, the labial outline is more

rounded than the labial outline of then maxillary CI. The mesiodistal and

distolingual angles are more rounded.

Pulp
Similar to the CI. The possibility of having two root canals

is .

Many people think that the cusps of the elephant is the canines, but‘

actually these are the Lateral incisors.‘

‘ ‘ ‘
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