We have basically the same line angles at the junction of the surfaces.

We got basically the

same point angle on this. If we look at the buccal surface of this tooth, we can see our
mesial and distal outline. Our most important characteristic in this view is the height of
contour. Our height of contour is similar to our max premolars. On the mesial, it is usually
found in the occlusal one third, on the distal, the surface is usally rounding more and the
height of contour usually is found in the middle 1/3. Our overall width on this tooth is about
1mm wider from the buccal lingual dimension than it is from the mesial distal so the tooth is
usually similar to max premolar, wider BL than MD but the tooth overall is about 2mm wider
both on BL dimension as well as MD dimension and what’s our premolar was. We’ve got
some rather strong characteristic on this tooth that we should identify for you and start to put
some term in and again the term are very similar to the surfaces and the cusp and what
have you well prominent feature on this tooth is our central pit, one of the biggest problem on
this tooth bc the central pit usually very deep and often time have the tendency to become
carious. Now we have a fossa around this pit area and sometimes this fossa will be called
the triangular fossa bc of the actually apex into the single pit and will get a groove from
frome the central groove and the other groove that seem apex reach in this. We generally do
way for this triangular terminology and we just called it the central fossa, mesial fossa, distal
fossa or whatever it is and leave the triangular out, that doesn’t seem to add a great deal to
the term other than just carried some additional jargon with it. We have mesial pit which is
not usually not nearly distinct or located quite prominent but it would be toward the mesial
aspect of the tooth. We have a distal pit which is usually fairly prominent in the distal portion
of the tooth. We have a centra groove that connects up to the mesial pit but it doesn’t
connect to the distal pit very well bc we have a rather strong ridge that crosses the tooth. Let
me see if I can point out this ridge to you here. This ridge runs from the mesial lingual cusp
distally a bit and then crosses the tooth to our distal buccal cusp and this ridge is term the
oblique ridge it runs crossway of the tooth not straight crossway but it goes to distal and run
across the tooth and remember on our mandibular first premolar we have a transverse ridge
that was characteristic of the first and mandibular premolar only. This oblique ridge is
characteristic of our max and very prominently in our max. first and sometime also exist in
our seconds and occasionally in our third molar but very prominent is this first and this will be
a very important characteristic particularly when we get into restorative dentistry and
reconstructing these for a crown and bridge and occlusion and a variety other purposes so
that’s one area I’ll want you to know and know very well is this oblique ridge across through
here. There are two very prominent grooves on this tooth that we should point out and
identify for you. One comes out of the central pit, and come to the buccal and simply called
the buccal groove and it actually crosses the marginal or I should say cusp ridge and it
devide cusp ridge and we’ll go over these cusp ridges here in a minute and extends down to
the buccal surface about half way down to the B surface but it doesn’t cross the cervical
ridge or HC. Actually, it comes right down the center almost of our B surface here. The other
very prominent characteristic groove is this distal lingual groove which comes out of the
distal pit and tranverses at a oblique angle and comes to the lingual surface and actually it
cross the HC of the tooth down on the center of the lingual surface and in the outline form
you can see a little dipping in this HC down here and it is not only crosses the HC but it
frequently in the max 1st molar will go down and groove right into the root surface. So it’s a
very strong group particularly in max. 1st molar. We have the same marginal ridge basically
on our molar. We’ve got our mesial marginal ridge and our distal marginal ridge. Distal
marginal ridge frequently just a little bit closer to the cervical. We have sometimes a groove
that will come up to the mesial marginal ridge and occasionally it’ll cross just a slight amount
and again this would be the M marginal ridge groove. Kraus textbook talked about this
groove but haven’t it in many teeth in which this shows probably enough to really point out
it’s not a real strong groove or real strong one in our central pit and our central groove
comes up to the mesial. Now we can look at these cusps and we find that we have ridges
coming from the cusps not only our triangular ridge that comes down into the central sulcus
area and again central sulcus would be a valley depression between our cusp and our
central sulcus area pretty much includes our occlusal table and there are occlusal table is
the portion in which our food devide and goes to the outside of the tooth or to the inside of
the tooth into the central portion of it. So our triangular ridges will come down into our central
sulcus area here. Now with our DB cusp here, our triangular ridge was almost connects up
to our ridge from this ML cusp. So we’ve got several triangular ridges coming down into the
central area of these teeth. We also have ridges coming from these cusps which are cusp
ridge. But you have to be a little bit more specific in the term. of these cusp ridges. Fact that
we have two MB cusp ridge. We’ve got a MB cusp ridge on the MB cusp and MB cusp ridge
on this DB cusp. So we may have to identify this further and say the MB cusp ridge of the
MB cusp or the MB cusp of the DB cusp. Let’s look at the root structure of these teeth.
Actually, as a group they’re the most easily identifiable teeth in the mouth as they have 3
distinct root and they are the only teeth the max molar that have 3 distinct roots. Snd the root
structure is quite characteristic bt 1st, 2nd, and 3rd molar. But it doesn’t outweigh the
prominence or the characteristic of the occlusal anatomy. Occlusal and crown anatomy is
much more reliable than the root anatomy. Root anatomy varies but on these 3 root we’ve
got specific term for all 3 roots as we did for our multiple rooted premolars and even in our
mult. Rooted mand. Cuspid. And the molar’s roots are termed simply by location. Now if we
look at the occlusal to get our orientation MD we would finds one roots comes out great
under this lingual groove and this is right in the center of the L surface and this is called the L
roots as very same term and same location as we have in our max. premolar. But on the B
surface, we usually have too roots and these are term by the area they’re located. We have
MB and DB roots. Now where are these 3 roots join we have an area which we are now
calling trifurcation meaning 3 root joining. We call it a bifurcation when we have two. Now we
call it a trifurcation or sometimes abbre. Furcation meaning division of the roots but this is a
trifurcation. Now the actual shape of these root I think it is important for many reasons, not
only for endo stand points but also surgical stand point and other reasons. Our L roots
usually the longest root on this tooth, it’s the single root supporting the L half tooth so it’s a
little longer and larger than our B roots and it has more a tendency to be round in its overall
structure. It’s a large round type root. Our MB root is rather a broad flat root. This is more
similar to our what’s in mand. Incisors, it’s a kind of a ribbon shape broad flattened root
actually occasionally have a concavity down the center of it, so it’s broad and flat on this
mesial surface and very frequently will have a concavity on the D surface of the MB root,
way down on the inside in here and this become rathe significant when you trying to remove
this tooth bc this really locks into some bone there and becomes quite a problem. Our distal
B root is the smallest root and it’s kind in between it’s not really round and its not really flat it
has a tendency a little bit on the broad side up towards occlusal but is has the tendency to
round off as it gets down toward the apex. I really should say … that doesn’t really come
close to the occlusal. This usually refered to the cervical portion of the root here. Make sure I
give my term straight here too. We have one section of this root here and we should have
pointed out on our premolar before the root trifurcate here or bifurcate which is called the
root trunk. That’s actually a new term a root trunk, that is a portion of the root before we get
a division. Actually if we go back and look at our occlusal outline on this tooth, this is often
referred to being rhomboid in shape. The M and D surface somewhat parallel but no
necessarily at right angle to the B and L surface and we’ll make a drawing of this or if you
make a drawing I should say we can make this rhomboid basically in its shape and that’s
what they’re referring to us one other prominent characteristic I think we should pointed out
to this and that even though we have 4 rather distinct align angles, our B line angle are more
prominent or I guess u could sharper a little bit sharper than our lingual line angles which
have the tendency to round more we have one light angle which very sharply as it gets
toward the cervical and this is your DB line angle great as it gets to the cervical it becomes
very round in fact as the whole tooth has the tendency to …in this area and this again
becomes quite a problem in restorative and should be noticed. We have this present on the
D cervical of area of our mand lateral and cuspid we pointed this out where this occurs
rounding very sharply and prominently on the cervical third of the DB line angle. Sometimes
the tooth referred to as having the a fifth cusp, when we have a fifth cusp present it kind of
join and grows with the largest cusp on this tooth which is we indicated to u is what ML being
the largest cusp which will get additional cusp which will occur on this area right here and
sometimes it’s not present at all in this tooth and it can present in varying degree here called
Carrabeli.
One thing we could pointed u also is our contact area sometimes on these molar they start
to become rather prominent and often time they will stain become quite dark and this
become a problem. Occasionally when u lose the deciduous teeth that are in front of these
and the patient look in the mouth and find a dark contact they rush to dentist bc they have a
cavity and u check in and u find a hard and stained and it’s just simply a contact area that
has become a stain. We got a contact area here on this tooth that has stain up a bit. DB line
angle rounded – calculus collected in the cervical very prominent for the calculus to collect
bc the tooth just take a sharp dip in that area.
The difference in size is about a mm in MD width within the same mouth in our second molar
and within the 3rd molar this can very, about a mm smaller the 2nd in the MD width but this 3rd
molar becomes so variable and so highly irregular and sometime not even present that we’re
not spend too much time in studying this. We’ll give you a little bit information identification
on it but we’re not certainly spend too much time on it. Our 2nd molar usually fairly
characteristic in their occlusal anatomy and fairly sound in their anatomy. We have about the
same width from the B to L as we do in our 1st molar within the same mouth but a little
shorter on the MD dimension as I indicated by a mm. We also have basic rhomboid shape in
it although line angle, particularly on the B here are becoming rounded. Remember this is
the characteristic bt the 1st and the 2nd premolar. The 2nd molar does the same thing in
comparison to the 1st, it start to round out in our general anatomy. And our anatomy occlusal
is again not quite as sharp and distinct and prominent as was our 1st molar. That’s the same
basic characteristic betw. The 1st and 2nd premolar. One of the thing that starts to become
rather prominent here is the DL cusp. This entire mass starts to become smaller in overall
dimension and this groove that comes out the DL groove and as it crosses our cusp ridge
here and start to come on the L surf. It doesn’t usually cross this HOC on the L surf. We
don’t usually get this deep groove crossing the HOC. We often don’t have any groove down
the root here at all. It just comes down half way on the L surface and stops, its lost its
characteristic prominent. Our B groove does carry out onto the B surf. And carries down on
the surf. And again as not quite as sharp, deep and prominent as what it would be on the 1st.
1st and 2nd are approximately equal in size, equal in their width as well as their height and
this B groove frequently will come right down in the middle of the B surf. On the L we find
that this not true. Our ML cusp is about 2/3 the width of our L surf. And our DL cusp is
smaller. Come to our 2nd this even occurs more so we may have ¾ our L surf ML cusp,
maybe only ¼ our DL cusp. 3rd: entire L surface is ML cusp. We may not or may have very
very small DL cusp area here. But one thing we also should note that when L groove does
come down the L surf.on the 1st molar, by the time it crosses the HOC it usually pretty close
to the mid portion of the tooth. It comes out at an oblique angle and by the time it reaches
the HOC it’s almost in the middle of the tooth and our 2nd it’s not reaching the HOC and
we’re not flattening groove in our L root here. L root is usually rounded in this area as in our
outline of our tooth bc this groove just isn’t crossing our anatomy occlusally is basically the
same as far as the terminology we have all four the same cusps we have the same surfaces
same line angles, same point angles, same marginal ridges with again the M marginal ridges
closer to the occlusal further from the cervical either way u want to put it and our D marginal
ridge dipping closer to the cervical. One thing that is fairly characteristic about this oblique
ridge in this tooth is that it’s not nearly as prominent to the 2 nd. We loose a lot of our generall
overall prominence. Often times this central groove will cross right through this oblique ridge
and this becomes important when we’re restoring the tooth we kind of like to know whether
we want to follow that groove out or we want to stop incline of our oblique ridge and very
frequently this will cross right over the ridge into the distal pit make a groove right through it.
Our root structure on our 2nd is usually contain within the crown and I didn’t really point this
out too prominently in the 1st. Let me show u a difference here in the existance. But within
the 1st our root structure is said to be trifurcated very close to the crown and we have a short
root trunk. In our 2nd, our trifurcation as not as close to the crown, and we have a longer root
trunk. In the 1st this L root is particularly usually extends well beyond the limit of the crown.
It’s much broader than what the crown is. In our 2nd this L is contained beneath the crown it
doesn’t extend significantly out beyond the width of the crown. ON the B surf. Of the 1st, we
find that the root are trifurcated close to the cer. And the roots are well spread. On the 2nd
these root are not generally spread very wide sometime they will be a little bit but they’re not
as wide as they are in the 1st. Stimes, they actually fused. It’s become a problem when our
roots separate in the middle of the portion and then they fuse again at the apex and then
when u try to remove these teeth u got a little piece of bone that grows right through this
area and lock right in it but they’re not nearly widely spread the root structure in general is
shorter but again our crown structure is shorter if we compares these with our bicuspid we’ll
find that 1st max molar is shorter crown, MD and BL is greater is the height is about a mm
shorter than our bicuspid and we go to our 2nd molar, our crown becomes shorter or ½ mm
or so.