Numbering of teeth and quadrants

Quadrants to identify your teeth

Because it may be useful to identify the dentition by section to target an area of several contiguous teeth, the mouth is divided into four sections called quadrants:

• Quadrant 1 (top right on your right)
• Quadrant 2 (top left on your left)
• Quadrant 3 (bottom left on your left)
• Quadrant 4 (bottom right on your right)

*Note: for primary dentition, it is rather quadrant 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively.

Each quadrant consists of a central incisor, the adjacent lateral incisor, the adjacent canine, premolars and the following molars.

Thus, the logic behind the tooth numbering is as follows: the first digit refers to the quadrant, while the second digit refers to the location of the tooth in the quadrant. The central incisor is the first tooth in the quadrant while the third molar (wisdom tooth) is the eighth and last tooth in the quadrant.