by pedalling_faster » Tue 10 Feb 2009, 12:50:46
it helps to learn dentist-speak. helps you to have more control over your dental care, that is.
adult human beings have 32 teeth, including the wisdom teeth.
tooth numbering starts with the upper right wisdom tooth being #1. then the teeth are numbered consecutively, so that the upper left wisdom tooth is tooth #16.
lower left wisdom tooth is #17, lower right wisdom tooth is #32.
for example, if you have all 4 wisdom teeth removed, your teeth numbering will be 2 through 15, and 18 through 31. your "buck teeth" - 2 large teeth in front on the top - are #8 and #9.
the surface of a tooth towards the front is "Mesial". although what is 'towards the front' changes, e.g. the mesial surface of tooth #8, your "right buck tooth", is facing towards the left.
back surface of the tooth is "Distal."
surface on the side of the tongue is "Lingual" (sometimes also called "Palatine"), surface on the outside is "Buccal".
Chewing surfaces are "Incisal" (on non-molars - teeth near the front), and "Occlusal" (on the molars).
so if you're looking at your dental records and you see "#21 caries L D", it means that one of your teeth on the lower left has decay on the Lingual and Distal surfaces, and you will be paying for a 2 surface filling.
one of the things that dentists are doing these days is trying to scare patients into having "deep scaling". that means, tooth cleaning on teeth that have some gum recession. i had a dental office try to get me to sign up for 4 deep-scaling sessions at a cost of $300 each. i went to another office and had a normal tooth cleaning for about $100.
so that's the Mug Root Beer tooth information session for today. although since learning this stuff, i have given up Mug Root Beer. i calculated that i was paying about $4 to the dentist for every Mug Root Beer and Sierra Mist i drank.