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The interactive dog atlas · Skeleton · Head

Incisive bone os incisivum

The incisive bone is the bony tip of the muzzle, the one that holds the upper front teeth.

Open in the interactive atlas Guide: Skeleton Worksheet

Educational material, not a diagnostic tool. Written by the Mantrailing România team from veterinary sources we read. Updated 14.11.2026.

Dog in left lateral view — exterior, muscles, skeleton and organs Vector study after the Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich plates: a standing dog, head to the left, deep chest and digitigrade limbs. The four layers use the same contour: exterior with body regions, superficial muscles, skeleton and organs.
  1. Incisive bone
  2. Nasal bone
  3. Maxilla
Incisive bone on the atlas drawing, "Skeleton" layer, with the neighbouring structures. Left lateral view, after the Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich plates.

Where it is

The bony tip of the muzzle; carries the upper incisors.

System
Axial skeleton
Region
Head

What it is and what it does

The incisive bone, or premaxilla, lies at the rostral end of the head and carries the upper incisors. In the dog its body is flattened dorsoventrally, with three alveoli that grow from the first to the third incisor, and it completes the alveolus of the canine. The nasal process forms the lateral edge of the bony nasal opening, the palatine process the front of the hard palate. Behind the incisors open the canals to the vomeronasal organ.

Worth remembering

The incisive papilla, immediately behind the upper incisors, is where the duct of the vomeronasal organ opens.

Names

  • Also called: premaxilla.
  • Latin term: os incisivum.
  • In Romanian: Osul incisiv (Romanian page).

Guides it appears in

From the same region: Head

All structures, in the atlas · Flashcards: skeleton