Commonly used terms of relationship and comparison in dentistry

Hello there! Let me explain some commonly used terms in dentistry that we use when we talk about relationships and comparisons.

First, let's talk about "occlusion". That's a big word that means how your teeth come together when you bite down or close your mouth. When your top teeth fit nicely over your bottom teeth, we say you have good occlusion.

Next, there's "malocclusion". This means your teeth don't come together properly. There are different types of malocclusions, such as overbite (where your top teeth stick out too far over your bottom teeth), underbite (where your bottom teeth stick out too far over your top teeth), and crossbite (where some of your teeth are too far to one side or the other).

If you have a tooth out of place or crooked, we call that a "misalignment" or "malalignment". We might use braces or other orthodontic treatments to straighten your teeth and fix the misalignment.

Sometimes we also compare the sizes of your teeth. "Macrodontia" means your teeth are bigger than normal, and "microdontia" means your teeth are smaller than normal.

Lastly, we might talk about "spacing" or "crowding". Spacing means there's enough room between your teeth, while crowding means your teeth are too close together.

So there you have it - some important words we use in dentistry to talk about how your teeth are lined up and how they compare in size and spacing.