Pit and fissure are the dental words for the natural dips and grooves on a tooth's chewing surface.

In kid words

"Pits and fissures are the tiny dips and grooves on top of your back teeth, kind of like little valleys next to the bumpy parts." Run your tongue over a back tooth and you can feel them. Every back tooth has some, and careful brushing is how you help keep them clean.

The parent version

A pit is a small, isolated dent in the enamel, and a fissure is a narrow groove connecting two pits or running across a tooth. Together they make up the naturally uneven landscape of a molar or premolar's chewing surface, built over the years to grind and mash food.

Mainstream dental sources describe pits and fissures as one of the more common starting points for a cavity, since their narrow shape can be hard for a toothbrush bristle to reach all the way to the bottom of. That does not mean every pit or fissure turns into a cavity, only that dental teams pay close attention to them. Ask your pediatric dentist about the pits and fissures on your own child's teeth.

Where you might hear it at our office

Pits and fissures are the specific target of one of the more common tools in preventative care: a BPA-free sealant, placed as a preventive step well before any of these grooves gets the chance to turn into a cavity. Not every tooth needs this kind of coverage, and a pediatric dentist sorts out which ones qualify at a regular checkup.

Any other word from a visit can be looked up in the rest of the Kids' Dental Dictionary.

Related words

Cusp. Molar. Enamel.