Dental Structure

Adult humans (usually by age 20) have a set of 32 teeth evenly distributed across the mouth’s quadrant. Each quadrant (lower and upper), has 8 teeth as follows:

1) Central Incisor
2) Lateral Incisor
3) Cuspid (Canine)
4) First Pre Molar
5) Second Pre Molar
6) First Molar
7) Second Molar
8) Third Molar (Wisdom Teeth)

These set of teeth are usually termed as the 2nd set of teeth. The 1st set (“baby”, “milk”, “primary” or “ deciduous”) usually appears at age 6 months of birth.
Note: Some babies are born with one of two teeth already visible.

Teething- this is when the 1st set of teeth becomes visible in infants and is usually painful. Teething can be a difficult time for babies and parents. Babies may become fussy, sleepless and irritable, loose their appetite and drool more than usual. Gently rubbing your child’s gums with a clean finger, a small cool spoon or a wet gauze pad can be soothing.
Most children have their full set of primary teeth in place by age three.

Children have 5 sets of teeth (1 to 5) listed above and are evenly distributed across the mouth’s quadrant. Total number of these milk teeth is twenty. Children start to loose their primary teeth usually at age six. The second set (permanent set) begins to erupt pushing out of the jaw the 1st set. The wisdom teeth are the last to erupt at around age 20.

Note: The wisdom teeth may not erupt at all due to lack of room. This happens when the jaw is too small to support extra teeth. The result is impacted wisdom teeth.

Dental irregularities

Did you know it is possible, though rare, for a person to have a 4th and even 5th Molars?
In this case, the total number of teeth will be more than 32 depending on how many “extra” teeth one may develop.