Dental Formula
The dental formula refers to the number and types of teeth a human has. Teeth crush and cut the foods we eat so that we can better digest them for nutrition. All mammals have four types of teeth: molars, premolars, canines and incisors. An adult usually has a total of 32 teeth (wisdom teeth included). Read on to find out what is the dental formula and the functions of different types of teeth.
Dental Formula
The arrangement of teeth in an oral cavity is expressed by a dental formula, which tells us how many teeth there are in a quadrant.
Dental formula for an adult human is shown as follows:
I - 2/2 C - 1/1 P - 2/2 M - 3/3 = 16 x 2 = 32.
The letters I, C, P, and M stands for incisors, canines, premolars, and molars respectively. I - 2/2 means there are two incisors in a quadrant of the oral cavity, and so there are 2+2 four incisors in half of jaw. For the whole set of teeth it’s 4+4=8 incisors. The same goes for canines, premolars and molars. So the total number is 8+4+8+12=32.
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