Resource
Free oral-health diagrams
Original diagrams drawn for this site’s articles, free for practices, educators and writers to reuse. One condition: credit us visibly, with a link.
Every article here gets a diagram drawn for it rather than a stock illustration bought in. They are plain vector drawings, built to explain one mechanism each — what a toothbrush cannot reach, how long plaque stays removable, where the gum used to sit.
Anyone who has looked for a usable dental illustration knows the problem: the good ones are expensive, the free ones are ugly or licensed so restrictively you cannot put them in a handout. So these are yours, under a licence that actually permits the uses people need.
The licence, in plain words
These diagrams are original work by Know Your Mouth, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You may reuse, adapt and republish them — including in commercial settings like a practice website or a patient handout — provided you credit “Know Your Mouth” with a visible link to knowyourmouth.com.
For print use, where a link is not possible, the text credit alone is fine.
The credit line, ready to copy:
Diagram: Know Your Mouth (knowyourmouth.com), CC BY 4.0
How to take one
Every diagram below is inline SVG, not an image file — which means it stays sharp at any
size and you can recolour it. Right-click and save the image, or view this page’s source and
copy the <svg> block straight out. No sign-up, no email, no download gate.
Adapt them if you need to. Changing the labels, the colours or the language is fine and expected — the licence permits it, and a diagram that fits your handout is more useful than one that doesn’t.
Gums
The gum inflames first and recovers. Once the bone behind it retreats, that loss is permanent.
From gum disease signs
The gum used to sit exactly where the enamel ends; everything below that line is root.
From receding gums causes
Breath
Papillae on the back of the tongue create sheltered, oxygen-poor crevices where odour-producing bacteria live.
From bad breath causes
Teeth
Plaque is soft and removable for roughly two days; then saliva minerals set it hard.
From plaque vs tartar
Bristles ride over the outside of both teeth and never enter the contact point between them.
From how often should you floss
Surface stain sits on the enamel; only peroxide penetrates it and changes the tooth's own colour.
From natural teeth whitening
The oral microbiome
Enamel covers only the crown. Below the gumline the root has no enamel at all.
From oral microbiome
Resident bacteria hold territory. A stripped surface is an opportunity, not a protected one.
From do oral probiotics work
A note on what these are
These are teaching diagrams, drawn to make a mechanism legible. They are schematic rather than anatomically exact — proportions are adjusted for clarity, and colour is used to mean something (calm rose for healthy tissue, coral for inflamed) rather than to match life. Use them to explain an idea, not to identify a condition.
If you use one, we would genuinely like to see it — hello@knowyourmouth.com. Not required by the licence, just nice.