How do dentists count teeth?

Joke: older dentists use their heads, junior dentists use their calculators 🙂

But seriously, there are at least 56 types of tooth numbering systems in which dentists count teeth and are used by dentists all over the world. However, in Europe dentists tend to use the “Palmer System” and chart each quadrant of eight teeth as:

UR 12345678 ( Upper Right)
UL 12345678 (Upper Left)
LR 12345678 (Lower Right)
LL 12345678 (Lower Left)

and just in case you’re wondering adults have 32 teeth in a full set (including the wisdom teeth). Children have just 20.

Americans and Europeans number teeth usually according to the FDI Two-Digit Notation:

(This is from the perspective of the patient’s right to left)

upper right to upper left
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 / 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 / 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38
lower right to lower left

or a system that simply numbers the teeth from 1 to 32.

upper left to upper right

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 / 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 / 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

lower left to lower right

It really isn’t as complicated as it sounds, but if you want more information, give us a call or fill out our contact form for a free consultation. Any treatment received is always guaranteed and there are never any hidden costs at Smile Clinic. We are an accredited dental clinic and our dentists and specialists are experts in their field.