Skip to content
EasyAnatomyLab
Menu

Upper secondary canine tooth: anatomy, location and function

The permanent upper canine (eye tooth), which has the longest root of any tooth. It tears and grips food.

Loading 3D model…
Skin0%
Muscles100%

Structures

Loading… Click the model or search.

Highlighted in the model: Upper secondary canine tooth. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Upper secondary canine tooth at a glance

What it is
The permanent upper canine (eye tooth), which has the longest root of any tooth.
Location
It lies in the upper dental arch, lateral to the lateral incisor, at the corner of the arch.
Function
It tears and grips food.
Body system
Digestive · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA55799 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • Typical eruption age: about 11 to 12 years.
  • FDI notation: 13 (right) and 23 (left).
  • It has the longest root of any tooth, reaching up beside the nose, which is why it is called the eye tooth.

Clinical relevance

It is the tooth most often impacted after the third molars, because it erupts late into a crowded arch.

Structures next to the upper secondary canine tooth

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Upper secondary canine tooth (FMA55799). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §23.1 Overview of the Digestive System. Rice University, 2022.
  3. Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.