Info To Patients
Dental Anatomy
Teeth
There are tissue made up of hard tissues for biting, chewing, grinding, cutting food, for speech and aesthetic purpose.
Anatomy of Teeth: Teeth consist of 3 layers
In each quadrant of mouth there are five baby teeth that is
- Enamel: outer most part that covers the crown portion of the teeth. It is the hardest tissue in out body and it help is chewing and grinding purpose. It is made up of inorganic component. It is made up of calcium hydroxy appatite crystals.
- Dentin: below the enamel it consist organic component which are made up of many tubules. It is cover by enamel in crown portion and cementum in root portion. Any exposed part to mouth cause sensivity due to wearing or decaying of enamel or cementum. Dentinal tubules run from enamel or cementum towards the pulp. At the pulp end of the dentinal tubules consist of nerve fibres which are responsible for causing sensivity. These dentinal provide nourishment for dentin and helps enamel from breaking because it is resilient in nature.
- Cementum: it is hard tissues covering the root portion of the dentin. It may contains cells or some places it may not contain cells.
- Pulp: it is innermost portion of tooth it contains nerve and blood vessels. It provides nourishment and formation of dentin. Caries extending to pulp cause severe pain and infection and may require root canal treatment. So regular check up and restoration if required to prevent caries extending towards pulp.
Gums
These are soft tissues around the teeth and cover the alveolar bones. Infection at gum level cause bleeding, swelling, pus discharge and is especially due to deposit such as calculus, plaque around tooth surface and gum which has to remove by proper brushing technique.
Periodontal Ligaments
These are tissue ligaments which attach tooth to the bone at root level. It helps tooth withstand biting force to teeth by cushioning effect. Destruction of the ligament is major cause of tooth mobility.
Mucosa
These are soft tissues present at cheek, floor of the mouth, roof of the mouth, lips. Different types of ulcers, lesions can occur due to poor oral hygiene and bad oral habits such as pan chewing, smoking, gutka, etc.
Tongue
It is tissue helps for sensation of food, drinks, etc. It also helps in speech and eating process.
Alveolar Process
It is part of mandible and maxilla which surrounds and supports the teeth.
Teeth Present
There generally 32 permanent teeth and 20 baby teeth.In each quadrant of mouth there are five baby teeth that is
- Central Incisor
- Lateral Incisor
- Canine
- First molar
- Second Molar
At till age of five, all deciduous teeth are erupted. These are subsequently replaced by succeeding permanent teeth. At the age of 10-12 years all the deciduous teeth are replaced by permanent teeth.
In each quadrant of mouth there are 8 permanent teeth that is from front
- Central Incisor
- Lateral Incisor
- Canine
- First Premolar
- Second Premolar
- First Molar
- Second Molar
- Third Molar (Wisdom Teeth)
Incisors are for cutting and slicing the food whereas canine are tearing food and molars and premolars are chewing and grinding purposes. These teeth are especially designed as to eat plants as well as animals.
Cattles have mostly molar types of teeth for grinding grass whereas tigers, wolves have specially designed canine teeth which are used as weapon for killing prey.