![]() In this case, the dentist has noticed a shadow on one side of the upper right second premolar and will need an x-ray to confirm if this is decay. And the incisal edges of 14, 13, 12, 11 ,21, 22, 23 and 24 are heavily worn, possibly bruxing.” “I suspect there is a cavity on the mesial of 15, we’ll need to check that with an x-ray. Your dentist will use similar-sounding number/letter/word combinations to identify the location of cavities, cracks or tooth wear. We’ll explain in another article what these letters mean. This tells the assistant that this patient has four fillings in the top right quadrant: a white (composite) filling on the chewing surface of the second molar, an amalgam filling covering two surfaces of the first molar and second premolar, and a white filling on the canine tooth. “Current restorations: 17 has an occlusal composite, 16 MO (“em-oh”) amalgam, 15 DO (“dee-oh”) amalgam, 13 distal composite” This time they will use a combination of numbers, letters and words. Next, they might identify the presence of fillings, crowns and implants. Also missing is three-four.” What this means is that all of the wisdom teeth are missing, as well as the lower left first premolar. Using these two sets of numbers, your dentist can identify each tooth in your mouth: so your upper right central incisor will be referred to as tooth 11 (and your dentist will say ‘one-one’, not ‘eleven’) and your lower left wisdom tooth is a 38 (‘three-eight’).ĭentists at Corinna Dental take detailed records of every patient, and these tooth numbers are the shorthand way to record the presence or absence of particular teeth.ĭentists will often start their examination of the teeth by taking a general look around the mouth and letting their assistant know which teeth are absent (and therefore which teeth to cross off the dental chart.) So they might say something like “One-eight, two-eight, three-eight and four-eight not present, possibly extracted, we’ll need to check that on the x-rays. Third molar (also known as the ‘wisdom tooth’.The mouth is organised into four quadrants:Įach type of tooth has a specific number: Each tooth is given a two digit number: the first one signifies which quadrant (corner) of the mouth the tooth is located in, and the second identifies the tooth type. In Australia, dentists use a particular numbering system to identify the teeth that are present in the mouth. In this series of articles we’ll explain some of the most common numbers that you might hear your dentist say. Have you ever wondered what your dentist means when they are examining your teeth and they start saying a string of numbers? After the checkup, your dentist will most likely explain what they’ve discovered, but you may still not be exactly certain what the string of numbers actually meant. ![]()
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