| Mandibular first premolar | |
|---|---|
 Mandibular first premolars of permanent teeth marked in red. There are no premolars inprimary teeth. | |
| Identifiers | |
| FMA | 55803 |
| Anatomical terminology | |
Themandibular first premolar is thetooth located laterally (away from the midline of theface) from both themandibular canines of themouth but mesial (toward the midline of the face) from bothmandibular second premolars. The function of thispremolar is similar to that of canines in regard to tearing being the principal action duringmastication, commonly known as chewing. Mandibular first premolars have twocusps. The one large and sharp is located on the buccal side (closest to the cheek) of the tooth. Since the lingual cusp (located nearer the tongue) is small and nonfunctional (which refers to a cusp not active in chewing), the mandibular first premolar resembles a small canine. There are nodeciduous (baby) mandibular premolars. Instead, the teeth that precede thepermanent mandibular premolars are the deciduous mandibular molars.
Sometimes, premolars are referred to asbicuspids. Even though the terms are synonymous, "bicuspid" refers to having two functional cusps, and the mandibular first premolar is an example of a premolar with only one functional cusp. Thus, "bicuspid" is technically not as accurate as "premolar".
In theuniversal system of notation, the permanent mandibular premolars are designated by a number. The right permanent mandibular first premolar is known as "28", and the left one is known as "21". In thePalmer notation, a number is used in conjunction with a symbol designating in which quadrant the tooth is found. For this tooth, the left and right first premolars would have the same number, "4", but the right one would have the symbol, "┐", over it, while the left one would have, "┌". The international notation has a different numbering system than the previous two, and the right permanent mandibular first premolar is known as "44", and the left one is known as "34".
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