Adult Dentition
Familiarity with dental nomenclature helps facilitate effective communication with dentists.
Permanent teeth begin to erupt around age 6 years and are all in by 21 years. Some adults have their third molars (wisdom teeth) or premolars extracted to relieve crowding, or the 3rd molars may not have erupted, so there may be only 24 to 28 teeth in healthy-appearing dentition.
However, most adults have 32 teeth, which include:
- 8Â incisors
- 4Â canines
- 8Â premolars
- 12Â molars
Adult teeth are numbered 1-32 starting in the right upper posterior molar to the left upper molar, and then dropping down to the left lower posterior molar to the right posterior molar.
Note: many people will not have 3rd molars (wisdom teeth) present, and if so, may only be partially erupted, especially among young adults
