Patients require dental implants to replace their missing teeth for all kinds of reasons.
These range from them having a diseased tooth that had to be extracted, them having had a tooth accidentally knocked out, or they need multiple teeth to be replaced due to previous poor oral care.
Just as the reasons for them requiring the dental implant treatments provides may differ, the specific teeth that they need to be replaced can differ too.
In effect, this means that no dental implants that we fit will be identical, as each one needs to be created to match the profile of the patient’s other teeth, the size of their teeth, and the type of tooth or teeth which needs to be replaced.
We say the type of tooth because each adult should have 32 teeth, and you do not need to be a dentist to know that they are all not the same.
In fact, those 32 these are sub-divided into four distinct tooth types, and below are explanations of them of all four.
Molars
You should have 12 molars , which means you have more of this type of tooth than any other. These are the large teeth to rear of your mouth where you have 3 on each quadrant.
This means three left and right on both the top and bottom rows of your teeth. Your molars have larger surfaces than any other tooth type and they are used primarily for grinding down our food.
They do more chewing for us than our other teeth, and so are most prone to needing fillings or extraction.
Premolars
Next in terms of location and number are our premolar teeth. We have 8 premolars with two located to the left and right of our top and bottom rows, and they sit immediately to the front of our 12 molar teeth.
You might hear some dentists refer to premolars are bicuspid teeth.
The main feature of these premolar teeth is that they are large, and they have a flat surface which has ridges around it.
This makes them ideal for grinding and chewing food as it moves from the front of our mouth to the back of our mouth, where the molars then take over the job of breaking down our food further.
Canines
If we continue towards the front of our mouth, after the premolars we have our 4 canine teeth: two on the top row and two on the bottom row.
Although we call them canine teeth, you will not find teeth like these in your dog’s mouth, as they will be stronger and sharper than the ones we have.
Nevertheless our canine teeth do carry out a similar function to a dog’s teeth. Not to bite the leg of the postman, but instead to tear at meat and other foods as they enter our mouth.
Incisors
We will focus on our incisors for a several of reasons. First, the details of incisor teeth are that we have four incisors on both the top row and bottom row of our teeth meaning we have 8 in total.
Another fact about incisor teeth is that they tend to be the first teeth we have as babies and the first to fall out and be replaced by our adult teeth in due course.
In terms of their shape they are flat and thin, and they are primarily used to bite into food and tear it as it enters our mouth.
It is our incisor teeth which most people can see when we talk, laugh and smile and therefore the teeth that most people are keenest on retaining.
They are also the most exposed of all our teeth and so the ones most likely to succumb to an accident which may break, loosen, or completely knock them out.
This is why incisor teeth are the most likely of all to be replaced by a dental implant, although please note that dental implants can replace all 4 tooth types we have described.