The numbers here are part of a system used by dentists to identify teeth - beginning with #1 -- the upper right third molar, proceeding around the upper teeth, then dropping directly down to the lower LEFT third molar -- tooth #17, and continuing in the opposite direction so that tooth #32 is directly beneath tooth #1.
To the dentist, however, left and right are reversed from the way you may experience it, so when the dentist looks in your mouth, he or she sees tooth #1 to his or her LEFT, and proceeds from left to right across the upper teeth and from right to left across the lower teeth.
Got that? If not, I've added a handy chart at the foot of this post to guide you!
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Two Tooth Poems by Joan Levin — March, 2020
Goodbye Number Fifteen -- Part 1
Joan Levin, 3/10/20
You’ve been right there with me since I was a teen,
And now you are leaving, dear Number Fifteen!
I brushed you and flossed you, as well suits a Queen,
But those days are over now, Number Fifteen!
There’ll be a big hole where you lately have been,
My tongue will search vainly for Number Fifteen!
I’m sorry you broke! This world can be mean!
Requiescat in Pace, dear Number Fifteen!
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Goodbye Number Fifteen -- Part 2
Joan Levin, 3/17/20
With Fifteen gone, there is no peace,
The battles in my mouth don’t cease
Two smashes Thirty-one, by golly,
Just like a Frazier bout with Ali!
Fourteen vs. Nineteen — it’s not funny,
It’s just like Dempsey banging Tunney!
These battles leave me limp with fright,
And there’s no referee in sight!
The International Tooth Numbering System
This chart is easier to understand but unfortunately has a typo in which the number 32 appears twice, and so 31, which figures intros poem, is not correctly labeled!
The numbers are accurate on this chart but it's harder to see the labels for the quadrants. But they are the same as above and No. 31 is correctly labeled.
Note: To see tooth related posts in this blog just search on "molar."
