It is often hard to talk to your dentist at the Panama Dental Center because they seem to speak a different language than you do.  Well, here are a few terms you may hear them use or you might use in speaking to them besides ‘this one”.

Incisors are the squarish, sharp-edged teeth at the front and middle of the mouth. There are four on the bottom and four on the top.

Canines, two on the bottom and two on the top next to the incisors.  The upper canines are sometimes called eyeteeth.

Bicuspids or premolars. There are two sets, for a  total of four premolars, in each jaw — two behind each of the canines on the bottom and two behind each canine on the top.

Molars, situated behind the premolars, have points and grooves. There are twelve molars in the adult mouth made up of three sets in each jaw called first, second, and third molars.

Wisdom teeth get their name because, as the last teeth to erupt, they break through, when a person is becoming an adult and is supposedly wiser. Wisdom teeth are not essential today and are often removed in procedures at the Panama Dental Center.

Pulp is the soft tissue in the tooth. It is made of connective tissue, nerves, and blood vessels all used to nourish the tooth.  The pulp has two parts: the pulp chamber in the crown  and the root canal  in the bottom beneath the gums.   Blood vessels and nerves enter the root through a small hole at the very bottom of the tooth and extend through the canal into the pulp chamber.

Dentin surrounds the pulp and this  hard yellow substance makes up most of the tooth.   It is the dentin that gives the tooth its slightly yellowish tint. Both the dentin and pulp cover the  tooth from the crown into the root.

Enamel is the hardest tissue in the human body and it is the visible white covering of each tooth’s crown.

Cementum covers the outside of the root below the gum line and holds the tooth in place in the jawbone. Cementum is as hard as bone but not as hard as enamel and it enables the tooth to withstand the pressure of chewing, protects it from harmful bacteria,  and insulates the nerves from changes in temperature.

The types of teeth and the way they’re formed are often used to describe a species. We humans develop our teeth  diphyodontly, meaning that we grow  two sets of teeth. The first set of teeth, the deciduous, fall out like leaves on a tree, and are also called the milk or baby teeth. These twenty or so teeth begin to develop before birth and erupt  through the gums between the ages of six  and twelve months.  We begin to lose these baby teeth around six years of age. The twenty or so “baby” teeth are  replaced by thirty two permanent  or adult teeth. Although neither of these sets of teeth are visible at birth their both there waiting to erupt as we grow and our jaw becomes larger. By the time we’re three, we’ll have a compliment of twenty baby teeth ten up and ten down made up of  four incisors, two canines, and four molars.

Soon your baby teeth fall out, because their roots have dissolved and your permanent teeth are pushing from below.  Your adult teeth usually take about 16 years to complete their growth cycle. We all move through various cycles in tooth development  beginning at  ages 6, when the incisors and our first molars start to come in.  Then around age 10 your  first,  second premolars and canines begin to erupt.  By the time you’re 13 you’ve probably got your second molars with the wisdom teeth following at age 16.  We hope that this small list of names from the Panama Dental Center helps you to understand a little bit more about your teeth. And if you have any other question, just call us we’re here to help.