Your best specimens for the study of crown morphology of primary teeth can be found in the mouth of a 2- to 6-year-old who is willing to open his or her mouth wide, long, and often enough to permit your examination. Extracted or exfoliated primary teeth with complete crowns and roots are difficult to find since most of these have resorbed roots and severe attrition (occlusal wear). Plastic tooth models, if available, are most helpful and have the added advantage of complete roots.

To begin, learn the following traits that apply to most primary teeth, both anterior and posterior, and that set them apart from the permanent teeth:

1. Primary teeth are smaller in size than the permanent teeth with the same type name. In other words, primary central and lateral incisors and canines are smaller than permanent central and lateral incisors and canines, respectively, and primary first and second molars are smaller than permanent first and second molars, respectively.
2. The crowns and roots of primary teeth have a marked constriction at the cervix, appearing as if they are being squeezed in around the CEJ. Thus, primary tooth crowns bulge close to the cervical line forming a more prominent facial cervical ridge and lingual bulge (or cingula)³ compared to permanent teeth. This is especially evident from the proximal views in Appendix 9a and 10e and when comparing maxillary molars in Figure 6-13 and mandibular molars in Figure 6-14
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