BACKGROUND Despite their shared origins, medicine and dentistry are not always two sides of the same coin. There is a long history in medical philosophy of defining disease and various medical models have come into existence. Hitherto, little philosophical and phenomenological work has been done considering dental caries and periodontitis as examples of disease and illness. METHODS A philosophical methodology is employed to explore how we might define dental caries and periodontitis using classical medical models of disease - the naturalistic and normativist. We identify shared threads and highlight how the features of these highly prevalent dental diseases prevent them fitting in either definition. The article describes phenomenology and the current thought around the phenomenology of illness, exploring how and why these dental illnesses might integrate into a phenomenological model. RESULTS We discover that there are some features particular to dental caries and periodontitis: ubiquity, preventability and hyper-monitorablility. Understanding the differences that these dental diseases have compared to many other classically studied diseases leads us to ethical questions concerning how we might manage those who have symptoms and seek treatment. As dental caries and periodontitis are common, preventable and hyper-monitorable, it is suggested that these features affect the phenomenology of these illnesses. For example, if we experience dental illness when we have consciously made decisions that have led to it, do we experience them differently to those rarer illnesses that we cannot expect? Other diseases share these features are discussed. CONCLUSIONS This paper highlights the central differences between the classical philosophical notion of disease in medicine and the dental examples of caries and periodontitis. It suggests that a philosophical method of conceptualising medical illness - phenomenology - should not be applied to these dental illnesses without thought. A phenomenological analysis of any dental illness is yet to be done and this paper highlights why a separate strand of phenomenology should be explored, instead of employing those that are extant. The article concludes with suggestions for further research into the nascent field of the phenomenology of dental illness and aims to act as a springboard to expose the dental sphere to this philosophical method of analysis.

中文翻译：

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牙齿异常：龋齿和牙周炎在现象学上是不典型的，以及为什么是非典型的。

背景技术尽管医学和牙科有共同的起源，但它们并不总是同一枚硬币的两个方面。在定义疾病的医学哲学上已有悠久的历史，并且已经出现了各种医学模型。迄今为止，关于龋齿和牙周炎作为疾病实例的哲学和现象学研究还很少。方法采用一种哲学方法论来探讨如何使用经典的疾病医学模型（自然主义和规范主义者）来定义龋齿和牙周炎。我们确定了共享的线索，并强调了这些高度流行的牙齿疾病的特征如何阻止它们符合上述两种定义。本文介绍了现象学以及有关疾病现象学的最新思想，探索这些牙齿疾病如何以及为什么会融入现象学模型。结果我们发现，龋齿和牙周炎有一些特殊的特征：普遍存在，可预防性和高度可监测性。了解这些牙齿疾病与许多其他经典研究疾病相比的差异，使我们面临有关如何处理有症状并寻求治疗的伦理问题。由于龋齿和牙周炎是常见的，可预防的和高度可监测的，因此建议这些特征影响这些疾病的现象学。例如，如果我们在有意识地做出导致牙齿疾病的决定时遇到了牙齿疾病，我们对他们的体验与我们无法期望的罕见疾病有不同的体验吗？讨论具有这些特征的其他疾病。结论本文强调了医学上经典的疾病概念与龋齿和牙周炎的牙科实例之间的主要区别。这表明，不加思索地将医学疾病概念化的一种方法（现象学）应运用于这些牙科疾病。目前尚无任何牙科疾病的现象学分析，并且本文重点介绍了为什么应该探索一条单独的现象学而不是采用现存的现象学。