The holotype dentary only preserves the posteriormost teeth, meaning that until recently when more comprehensive material was recovered, most of the dentition of the genus (its most distinctive feature) was unknown.

Because the anteriormost part of the dentary of Carinodens is relatively slender with small pointed tooth crowns, only the posteriormost five teeth actually functioned for crushing food.

The anteriormost portion of the dentary was thus likely used for acquiring and handling food rather than crushing it, an idea already suggested by Dollo (1913) during the description of the type species.

These groups were abundant in the late Cretaceous seas around Maastricht, meaning that their population numbers cannot explain the rarity of Carinodens.

Dollo later erected a separate genus, "Compressidens" for the species in 1924, recognising the more compressed nature of the teeth in comparison to those of Globidens.

Based on the remarkable dental heterodonty exhibited in C. palistinicus, several previously not considered prey items may be postulated for Carinodens (Kaddumi 2009).

Sharpe et al. (2024) found that the holotype of Xenodens could not differentiate that genus from being an earlier ontogenetic stage of the Carinodens dental morph.