6. Teeth – types of dentitions. Tooth parts and tooth composition. Periodontium – composition and function.
Covers the types of dentition, comparing homodont and heterodont teeth and anodont, polyphyodont, diphyodont and monophyodont replacement patterns, then human primary and permanent sets. It goes on to tooth parts such as crown, root, neck and pulp cavity, the composition of enamel, dentin, cementum and pulp, and the five functions of the pulp. A final section describes the periodontium: alveolar bone, the periodontal ligament, physiologic mobility and proprioception. Tables compare dentition types and tissue properties.
Topic 6 of 75 in the MU Sofia syllabus for Preclinics of Dental Prosthetics (Dental Medicine, Year 2). The free AceMed note covers it in 5 sections, about 365 words (4 min of reading), with 13 flashcards.
In this note
Introduction
Types of dentition
Parts of a tooth
What a tooth is made of
The periodontium
Introduction
Teeth are the main part of the supporting section of the masticatory system. Each one is a living organ built from three hard tissues around a soft pulp, and held in its socket by the periodontium.
Types of dentition
Animals differ in what their teeth look like and in how often they are replaced.
So human teeth are heterodont and diphyodont: 20 primary teeth erupt between about 6 months and 2 years, and from age 6 they are replaced one by one by the 32 permanent teeth, mostly by age 12–13.
Parts of a tooth
Crown (corona dentis): covered with enamel.
Root (radix dentis): covered with cementum and held in the alveolus. A tooth may have one, two, three or more roots; where they split is the furcation (bifurcation or trifurcation).
Neck (cervix, collum dentis): the narrow zone where crown meets root, at the cement-enamel junction (CEJ).
Pulp cavity: a coronal pulp chamber and one or more root canals, open to the body only at the apical foramen.
Continue reading free
The whole note, all 5 sections, is free with an AceMed account, with its 13 flashcards. Premium adds flashcard recall, highlights and Ask AI.
