18 ANATOMY

THE MODIFIED TRIADAN SYSTEM:

NOMENCLATUREFOR VETERINARYDENTISTRY
byMichaelR Floy4 DVM, FAW

Dr. MichaelFloyd is a Fellow in theAcademyof VeterinaryDentistryand is afull-time veterinarydentistat thcAlbany Veterinary

Clinic, 1550SolanoAvenue, Albany,CA94707

Recentlythe issuehas beenraisedcon- sametooth in different specieswith the Theseconddigit refersto thelocationand
cerningthenomenclature for describing samedesignation. anatomicaldescriptionof the tooth.The
dcntitionin theveterinarydentalpatient. teetharenumberedconsecutivelyfrom 1
Several metlndsfo r referencing teeth have ANIMAL NOMENCLATURE FROM to 8 startingatthemidlineandproceeding
beenutilize{ Ieadingto confusioncon- HUMAN NOMENCLATURE distal.Sincetheteethin eachquadrantare
cemingan acceptablesystetnthat is in- In January 1972, the International homologous,each tooth with the same
terchangeablebetweenspecies.TheModi- Dental Federationadopteda new, two seconddigit is thesametype of tooth.For
fied Triadan Systemis introduced and digit, "user friendly" nomenclaturesys- example,14,24,34, and44 ue all fnst
offersa simple,accurate,"userfriendly" tem for usein the humandentalpatient. premolars(bicuspids).
veterinarydental nomenclaturesystem. ThisNewSystemeliminatedtheplusand Following the acceptanceof the New
This anicle describes how the system minus signsof the HaderupSystqmand Systemfor humandental nomenclature,
evolvedand its advantages for the veteri- the bracketsof the winkel System.tThe ProfessorDr. Med. Dent. H. Triadan,a
narydentist.J VENT DENT 1991; 8(4): New Systemhas many advantages,not dentistattheUniversity of Bern,Switzer-
18-19. theleastofwhichisitscompatibilitywith land,introduceda similar systemfor ani-
computertechnology.It is,however,more mals.rDueto thefact thatmanyanimals,
GOAL OF NOMENCLATUR.E commonly used in Europe than in the including his caninemodel, havemore
SYSTEMS UnitedSates. thannine teethin an arcade,the Triadan
The goal of any dental nomenclature Inthe NewSystem,thefirstof thetwo Systemfor animals utilizes three digits
systemshouldbe to provide a logical, digits representstheqga(hnlLin primary insteadof nvo digits.
exact,non-confusing, easyto leam-and- or secondarydentition,beginningwith I JustastheNew System,thefirst digit
usemethodof describingteeth.An effec- for tireupperright andproceedingclock- of theTriadanSystemidentifiesthequad-
tive systemshouldfunctionequallywell wise aroundthe mouthto 4 for the lower rant startingwith I in the upperright and
whenspoken,handwritten,typed,printed, right quadrant.In primary dentition, the endingwith4inthe lqwerright.Theteeth
storedor retrieved. For veterinary den- numbersstartwith 5 in theupperright and are numbered consecutively beginning
tists,the idealsystemwould identify the proceedto 8 in the lower right quadrant. with 01 at themidlineandproceeddistal.

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Copyright1991 OentaLab€ls

Figare 1 - Dental andperiodontal recor$ permanentdentition in dogs.

(Coartesyof Dentalabels, 19 NonvoodAvenue,Kensington,CA 94707)

J. VET.DENT.Vol.I No.4 December

1991
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109 108 107 106 104 10{t 102 101 201 202 203 2U 206 N7 208 209

409 lo8 407 404 401! n2 /ol 301 3t2 303 304 307 308 309
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Copyright

Figare 2 - Dental and periadontal recor4 permanentdentition in cats.(Courtesyof Dentalabels).

Forexample,thedogs'upperright fourth tionship betweenteeth of the upper and Acknowledgements: Many thnnl<sto Dr.
premolaris108,andthelowerrightfourth lower arcades.Furthermore,the use of Peter Fahrenkrugfor hispersonal com-
premolaris 408 (Figure l). However, this systemprovidesthe veterinaryden- munication and for providing Dr.
Triadanfailed to addressthe problem of tist with a methodto understandthecom- Trtadan'soriginalanicle in German,and
numberingteeth in speciessuch as the parative anatomicrelationshipbetween to JuanaLyonfor preparing the English
feline which are missingteethcompared teethof variousspeciesby refening to ffanslation.
to thecanine.In 1990,West-Hydeestab- their commonidentifying numbers.
lishedthe anatomicdescriptionof feline REFERENCES
dentition which accountedfor the ana- CONCLUSIONS L TriadanH. Tierzahnheilkunde:
tomicnumberingsequenceof teethin this TheModified TriadanSystemhasthe Zahnerhaltung(Fiillungstherapiemit
qpecies. distinct advantageover anatomicalnota- "CompositeMaterials" und Endo-
tioninthatitis equallyeasyto write,type, dontie)bei Affen und Raubtieren.
TIIE MODIFIED TRIADAN SYSTEM speak,print, storeandretrieve.It leaves SchweizArch Tierheilkd 1972;
A veterinarydentistmayhavepatients no room for confusion about left and ll4:292.
of severaldifferentspecieswith varying right, upper and lower, or comparative
dental formulas. [n order for a dental evaluationsbetweenspeciesevenwhen 2. West-HydeL. Theenigmaof feline
numberingsyst€mto be "userfriendly", one specieshas a reduceddentition. It dentition.J Vet Dent 1990;7(3):
the tooth numbersshouldbe consistent allowsexactcommunication whenchart- t6-17.
from speciesto species.A toothwith the ing or otherwisespeakingabout teeth.
sameanatomicaldesignation shouldhave Regular usersof the Modified Triadan 3. EisenmengerE,T*nterK. Toothand
the sameidentifying numberregardless Systemquickly learn the numbersand Jaw. In VeterinaryDentistry.Phila-
of species. appreciatetheaccuracyandsimplicity of delphia:Lea andFebiger,1985:
In introducing a modification of the this system. 9-10,16.
TriadanSystem,gapsareleft in thenum-
beringsequencewheretherearemissing
teeth.For example,the first premolaren- Member:AmericanVeterinary
counteredin thefelineleft maxilla (uLP2) tistry
is numbered206, not 205.2rThe nro FULL RATORY
lower right premolars are 407 and 408,
Call For Tape
not 405 and406 (Figure 2).
With theModifiedTriadanSystem,all
canineteethendin 4, andall first molars
end in 9 ("The Rule of 4 and 9"). This l2
Davis Dental
systemappliesequallywell to all domes-
tic species.In addition to being an easy
systemto leam,it alsoreinforcestherela-
J.VET-DENT-VoLAtrlp,.
I Dwnbrl99l