Diagram library
Measured dental diagrams, free to reuse.
Clinical drawings, each built to measured anatomy rather than sketched, with the studies every dimension comes from printed underneath. Published under CC BY 4.0, so you may use them anywhere with credit.
CC BY 4.0, credit Dr. Khalid Aletaibi. Reuse terms: CC BY 4.0
What does a notch at the gum line look like, and is it abrasion or abfraction?
Four looks classically linked to brushing and four classically linked to bite forces, each drawn on the same measured upper premolar, as seen in the mouth and cut through. Brushing alone has produced several of these shapes in the laboratory, and the shape alone does not show the cause.
Open diagram: What a notch at the neck of the tooth can look like
Does acid change the shape of a notch at the gum line?
A close-up of the neck of the upper premolar drawn in the other figures, with a 1 mm scale. In a laboratory study on extracted premolars, brushing alone made sharp wedges of about 60 degrees; with acid as well, more tooth was lost and the notches were open dishes of about 145 degrees. Both outlines are drawn on one tooth so that their shapes can be compared.
How can a dentist tell wear from grinding apart from wear from acid?
Two close-ups with a 1 mm scale. Left: the edges of an upper and a lower front tooth have ground against each other; they are flat and sharp-edged, with dentine showing in the middle, and they meet exactly. Right: acid has dissolved a back tooth around an old filling, so the tooth surface has receded and rounded and the filling stands proud of it. These are the classic signs; most worn teeth show more than one cause.
How much tooth structure does a veneer remove compared with a crown?
The same upper central incisor in every panel, one midline section, drawn to scale from measured anatomy. Hatched red is tissue that does not grow back.
How thick is the enamel on an upper front tooth?
Drawn to scale from published measurements, with every labelled dimension measured back off the drawn geometry rather than asserted beside it. The enamel really is that thin at the neck.
Open diagram: Maxillary central incisor, labiopalatal section
What is the difference between an inlay, an onlay, an overlay and a crown?
The same mandibular first molar in every panel, drawn to scale from measured anatomy. The percentages are areas measured off these drawings by scanline every 0.005 millimetres, within this one section, and are not whole-tooth volumes.
Open diagram: Inlay, onlay, overlay, crown: what each one takes
What does a lower first molar look like in cross section?
Drawn to scale, with every depth measured down from the central fossa, which is the landmark the source studies read from. Each stated dimension is measured back off the drawn geometry rather than asserted beside it.
What happens to the tooth and the bone during root canal treatment?
The same lower first molar in every panel, cut from the cheek side to the tongue side through its front root, with the gum, ligament and bone around it. The tooth and bone are drawn to published measurements; the three stages show what typically happens, not one patient's tooth.
Open diagram: Root canal treatment: cleaned, sealed, protected, and the bone can heal
Where does an infected root canal meet the bone?
A close-up of the front root's tip from the same measured molar as the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. Each canal narrows just before it exits, usually a little to one side of the tip, and that exit is where bacteria and their toxins reach the bone.
How many canals does a lower first molar have, and where do they start?
Looking down through the opening of the same measured molar, with the whole roof of the chamber removed so that no ledge hides an entrance. Three canals is the commonest arrangement, two in the front root and one behind; about a third of these teeth have a fourth.
What happens to a tooth with deep decay during a composite filling?
The same lower first molar in every panel, cut from the cheek side to the tongue side through its front root, with the gum, ligament and bone around it. The tooth and bone are drawn to published measurements; the decay and the filling show what typically happens, not one patient's tooth.
Open diagram: A composite filling: only the decay comes out, and the tooth is bonded back in layers
Is it safe to leave some softened dentine over the nerve under a filling?
A close-up from the same measured molar as the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. All the infected dentine is gone; a thin layer of affected dentine stays over the pulp, sealed under the liner and the composite, with firm dentine still between it and the pulp. Leaving it, rather than digging on, lowers the risk of exposing the pulp, and dentine sealed in this way has been seen to harden.
How does a composite filling bond to the edge of the tooth?
A close-up of the filling's cheek-side edge, from the same measured molar as the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. Acid goes on only where the wall is enamel, the adhesive then covers enamel and dentine alike, and the composite goes in in small layers that copy the tooth: opaque where the dentine was, translucent where the enamel was.
How is a crown placed on a root-filled tooth that has lost its walls?
The same lower first molar in every panel, cut from the cheek side to the tongue side through its front root, with the gum, ligament and bone around it. The tooth and bone are drawn to published measurements; the broken walls, the build-up and the crown show what typically happens, not one patient's tooth.
Open diagram: A crown for a root-filled tooth that has lost its walls: sealed, rebuilt and bonded
Where should the edge of a crown sit against the gum?
A close-up of the crown's tongue-side edge, from the same measured molar as the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. The crown ends on enamel at the gum line, where it can be cleaned and checked, and the gum's attachment to the root below it is left undisturbed.
How does a crown bond to a root-filled tooth?
A close-up where the remaining wall meets the build-up, from the same measured molar as the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. The freshly cut dentine was sealed straight away, the build-up was bonded over it, and the crown, sandblasted, etched, cleaned and primed with silane, was bonded to both with resin cement.
How does an onlay repair a tooth with a broken cusp?
The same lower first molar in every panel, cut from the cheek side to the tongue side through its front root, with the gum, ligament and bone around it. The tooth and bone are drawn to published measurements; the old filling, the break and the onlay show what typically happens, not one patient's tooth.
How much enamel does a veneer remove, and does the porcelain matter?
The same upper central incisor in every panel, cut from the lip side to the palate side, with the gum, ligament and bone around it. The tooth and the tissues at its neck are drawn to published measurements; the two veneers show what typically happens, not one patient's tooth.
How is a chipped front tooth rebuilt with bonding, and does any of the tooth have to be cut?
The same upper central incisor in every panel, cut from the lip side to the palate side, with the gum, ligament and bone around it. The tooth and the tissues at its neck are drawn to published measurements; the break, the etched enamel, the key and the layers show what typically happens, not one patient's tooth.
How does bonding hold on a chipped front tooth without cutting a bevel?
A close-up of the lip side of the chipped incisor in the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. The break is not bevelled: acid goes on the enamel past it and on its enamel rim, the adhesive covers enamel and dentine alike, and the last enamel layer runs about 1.5 mm onto intact enamel, thinning to nothing so the join blends in.
What is inside a front tooth rebuilt with bonding?
A close-up of the rebuilt edge from the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. The palatal shell came first, formed against the silicone key where the tooth's palatal enamel was; the dentine shades follow the tooth's own dentine; and the front enamel layer completes the front and the edge. The dashed line is the break they replace.
How does an onlay meet the tooth where a cusp broke off?
A close-up of the tongue-side edge of the onlay in the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. The broken surface is smoothed flat and ends square against the tooth's outer surface, on enamel and above the gum, with no bevel. Under the resin cement, the dentine that the smoothing exposed was sealed the day it was cut.
What is under an onlay, and why is the dentine sealed and the undercut filled?
A close-up under the onlay in the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. Where the old filling left an undercut on the cheek side, a composite base fills it rather than more tooth being cut away; the dentine beneath was sealed the same day, and the onlay is bonded on top with resin cement.
Where does a porcelain veneer end at the gum, and why does it stay on enamel?
A close-up of the gum-line edge of the feldspathic veneer in the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. The light chamfer is cut on enamel and ends level with the gum, where the edge can be cleaned and the gum's attachment below it is left alone; the porcelain is bonded with resin cement.
How is a porcelain veneer bonded to the tooth?
A close-up through the middle of the feldspathic veneer in the step-by-step figure, with a 0.5 mm scale. The enamel left under the preparation is etched, the porcelain's inner surface is sandblasted, etched with hydrofluoric acid, cleaned with phosphoric acid and primed with silane, and resin cement joins them; veneers whose bond stayed on enamel have failed far less often than those bonded to dentine.
How much of the neighbouring tooth does a bridge for a missing front tooth take?
The upper central incisor next to the gap, cut from the lip side to the palate side, with its gum and bone. For a conventional bridge it is cut down for a lithium disilicate crown with a chamfer at the gum line, losing over 40 per cent of this section, and the canine on the other side of the gap is crowned too. For a Maryland bridge one ceramic wing is bonded to its palatal enamel and nothing is cut.
What does a bridge for a missing back tooth involve, and how much of the neighbouring teeth is removed?
A lower second premolar and second molar beside a missing first molar, cut lengthways along the arch and seen from the cheek, with the gum and bone. The healed ridge is lower and narrower than before the extraction. Both neighbours are prepared with a 0.5 mm chamfer at the gum line, losing about 40 per cent of each crown in this section and keeping about 1.5 mm of dentine over the living pulp. The zirconia bridge joins two crowns to the false tooth through connectors about 3 mm tall, with rounded openings beneath them for cleaning.
Open diagram: A bridge for a missing back tooth: the two neighbours carry it
What does a Maryland bridge look like from the front and from behind?
Three upper front teeth drawn to Wheeler's measurements, crowns down as in the mouth. From the front only the false lateral incisor shows; the wing is hidden behind the central incisor, drawn dashed. From the palate the wing, the connector and the false tooth are one piece: the wing covers most of the central's palatal enamel, clear of the gum, the edge and the other contact, and the canine is not touched.
Open diagram: A Maryland bridge from the front and from the palate
Where does an all-ceramic bridge usually break, and how big are its joints?
A close-up of the joint between the premolar's zirconia crown and the false tooth in the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. The connector measures 3.3 mm tall here, as much as these crowns allow above the margins; beneath it a rounded opening leaves room for floss and small brushes, and the crown's margin sits at the gum.
How does the false tooth of a bridge sit on the gum, and can you clean under it?
A close-up under the false tooth in the step-by-step figure, with a 1 mm scale. Its rounded underside rests lightly on the gum without pressing into it; the gum over the healed ridge is drawn 2.2 mm thick, and the underside curves up at each side, leaving room for floss and small brushes.
How is a Maryland bridge wing attached without cutting the tooth?
A close-up of the wing in the step-by-step figure, with a 0.5 mm scale. Nothing is cut: the tooth's own palatal enamel is etched, and the ceramic wing, its inner surface sandblasted, etched, cleaned and primed with silane, is bonded to it with resin cement.
How does the false tooth of a Maryland bridge sit against the gum?
A close-up through the false lateral incisor, with a 1 mm scale. Its rounded base rests 1 mm into a shallow hollow of the gum, so it seems to come out of the gum like a natural tooth, and the gum keeps about 2 mm over the bone. Its exact shape depends on the case.
How can you tell grinding, acid and brushing wear apart?
Grinding, acid and hard brushing, each shown alone on the same upper central incisor and lower first molar, with the biting surface beside each molar. Most people have a mix of these, and shape alone cannot prove the cause.
Open diagram: Three ways teeth wear, and the mark each one leaves
What treatment does each stage of tooth wear need?
Four published grades of wear on an upper central incisor and a lower first molar, with the treatment each usually needs. Treatment depends on the whole mouth, and finding the cause comes first at every stage.
Why does a worn cusp have a hollow in the middle?
A close-up of the buccal cusp of the molar in the stages figure, with a 1 mm scale. Hollows like this can come from grinding, from acid, or from both, and the tubules under the worn surface become sealed.
How much of a worn tooth is cut to rebuild it with composite?
A close-up of the worn edge of the front tooth in the stages figure, with a 1 mm scale. The bevel stays in the enamel, and the rest of the tooth's shape is added in composite.
What do the numbers on a gum chart mean?
The reading is the distance from the gum's edge to where the probe stops, shown by the bracket beside each probe. Healthy gums read 1 to 3 mm and do not bleed; the aim of treatment is no pocket deeper than 4 mm that bleeds and none of 6 mm or more.
How does a gum pocket heal after deep cleaning?
The pocket closes mostly by a long seal of gum along the cleaned root, plus a little shrinkage of the gum edge; bone already lost does not grow back by itself. On average pockets were 1.4 mm shallower and about three in four closed at 6 to 8 months.
What is inside a gum pocket?
A close-up of the tongue side of the 5 mm pocket, with a 1 mm scale. Plaque and tartar stop short of the bone: below them lie a short seal of gum, a band of lost fibres, then fibres still holding the tooth.
Does the gum reattach after deep cleaning?
The same spot after healing, with a 1 mm scale. The gum seals along the cleaned root with a long epithelium, not new fibres, and the probe now stops inside that seal; the bone stays where it was.
Why does tartar build up behind the lower front teeth?
Tartar above the gum forms most on the tongue side of the lower front teeth, next to where saliva enters the mouth, and always carries live plaque. Brushing removes plaque; tartar comes off at a cleaning.
What happens during a professional teeth cleaning?
The gum check comes first; the dye then shows the plaque, the ultrasonic tip lifts the tartar and air polishing lifts stain, plaque and the dye. Thick plaque takes the darker colour; the colour says little about its age.
How does an ultrasonic scaler remove tartar?
A close-up at the gum line on the tongue side, with a 1 mm scale. The side of the tip's last 1 to 2 mm, held close to parallel, chips the tartar away; it moves only hundredths of a millimetre.
Is air polishing safe for fillings and crowns?
Grains drawn to scale beside a 15 micrometre bonded joint, with a 50 micrometre scale. Erythritol and glycine were the least abrasive powders on fillings and crowns in laboratory tests; grain size alone is not the reason.