Question

What is the dental formula of a normal human adult?

Answer 1

Hint: The development and arrangement of teeth in the mouth of animals is known as dentition. There are different types of teeth in animals, based on their diet. The expression of the total number of teeth and the arrangement of the different types of teeth in animals is known as the dental formula.

Complete answer:
There are four basic types of teeth – incisors, canines, premolars and molars. The function of these teeth is crushing, grinding, biting and tearing of food particles. Different animals have different specialization of types of teeth based on their diet. For example, herbivores have chisel shaped large incisors, flat premolars and molar for chewing their food. Carnivores, on the other hand, have small incisors and large pointed canines for tearing flesh and the molars and premolars have serrated edges for shredding their food instead of grinding.
Dental formula depicts the number and arrangement of the different types of teeth in animals from one side of the jaw to another. The dental formula includes teeth present on both the jaws for one side or quadrant of the mouth. The formula is depicted by using both figures and letters. In the dental formula, incisors are mentioned first, followed by canines, premolars and molars. The dental formula can be thus expressed as $\dfrac{{{\text{I}}{\text{. C}}{\text{. Pm}}{\text{. M}}}}{{{\text{I}}{\text{. C}}{\text{. Pm}}{\text{. M}}}}$
The adult humans have 2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars and 3 molars one side of a jaw. The dental formula of humans depicts 16 teeth on one side of the mouth (including the upper and the lower jaw). Adult human beings have a total of 32 teeth in their mouth.
Therefore, the dental formula of adult human beings can be written as: $\dfrac{{2.1.2.3}}{{2.1.2.3}}$.

Note: Teeth in animals are required for tearing, crushing, grinding food. There are different types of teeth in animals – incisors, canines, premolars and molars. The arrangement of the teeth in the jaws, their number and type are known as dentition. Study of dentition is very useful for archaeologists, because teeth structure remains constant and remains unaffected by temperature, pressure, dietary changes or usage patterns. Also, teeth are better preserved than bones, and thus it can provide a lot of information like movement in the ancient populations, their diet specifications and their place in phylogeny.