Cusp is the dental word for the raised points on a tooth's chewing surface.

In kid words

"Cusps are the little mountain peaks on top of your teeth, the bumps you can feel with the tip of your tongue." Say it slowly, and let your child find one by running their tongue along a back tooth. Molars have a few of these peaks in a row, and the pointy canine up front has just one.

The parent version

Cusp is the dental word for a raised point on the chewing surface of a tooth. Molars typically have several cusps, which is what gives them their bumpy look, while canines have just one pointed cusp, part of why a canine is easy to pick out in a smile.

Between the cusps sit grooves, the natural low points where the chewing surface dips down. Mainstream dental guidance points to these grooves as a common spot for cavities to start, since their shape makes them harder for a toothbrush to reach fully clean than the flatter parts of a tooth. That does not mean every groove turns into a cavity, only that dentists keep a closer eye on them, and any specific question about your own child's grooves is a good one for your pediatric dentist.

Where you might hear it at our office

Cusp tends to come up around BPA-free dental sealants, a thin coating painted into the grooves between a molar's cusps, the exact spot mainstream guidance flags as cavity-prone. A sealant does not change a tooth's cusps; it simply smooths over the grooves so food and plaque have a harder time settling in.

Whether sealants make sense for your child's molars, and when, gets worked out at a routine visit. Cusp is just one entry, so browse the rest of the Kids' Dental Dictionary for any other word that came up at your last appointment.

Related words

Molar. Bicuspid. Sealant.