You may have seen your dentist numbering your teeth like 45 or 13, some times my patients see me blank face when I say you have a cavity on 45 !
Case history is a important part of any medical practice and dentistry is no different from it, there are different kind of systems to by which dentist count your teeth.
How Do Dentist Number Teeth
There are three major systems to count teeth Palmer notation, ISO system and Universal numbering system.
Palmer Notation
Birth of palmer notation goes way back to 1861 when a hungarian dentist Adolf Zsygmondy used Zsygmondy cross to indicate each quardrant of the mouth. Permanent teeth are numbered 1 to 8 starting from incisors to third molar and milk teeth are numbered A B C D E
It was later called as palmer notation and it is widely used in UK and by dental students. It is discouraged to be used now a days because it's difficulty to write by keyboard.
Permanent Dentition
upper right - 1x upper left - 2x
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
R --------------------------------------------------- L
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
lower right - 4x lower left - 3x
Primary Dentition
upper right - 5x upper left - 6x
E D C B A | A B C D E
R --------------------------------- L
E D C B A | A B C D E
lower right - 8x lower left - 7x
I - Incisor
C - Canine
P - premolar
M - molar
ISO System
International Standards Organisations System that what it means. This system was developed by World health organisations. This system is widely used and getting popular due to ease of use, It's most probable that you have seen your dentist writing or talking about his system.
This system is a two digit system in which first number represent the quadrant of the tooth and second number represent the tooth.
Deciduos quadrant are numbered from 5 for maxillary right 6 for maxillary left 7 for mandibular left 8 for mandibular right.
1,2,3,4,5 for deciuos teeth.
Permanent quadrant are numbered from 1 for maxillary right, 2 for maxillary left 3 for mandibular left 4 for mandibular right.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 for permanent teeth from incisor to third molar.
So 45 means mandibular right second premolar.
Permanent Dentition
upper right - 1x upper left - 2x
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 | 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
R --------------------------------------------------- L
48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 | 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
lower right - 4x lower left - 3x
Primary Dentition
upper right - 5x upper left - 6x
55 54 53 52 51 | 61 62 63 64 65
R --------------------------------- L
85 84 83 82 81 | 71 72 73 74 75
lower right - 8x lower left - 7x
I - Incisor
C - Canine
P - premolar
M - molar
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