Speak English Confidently at the Dentist--Daily life English

Vanessa Prothe: Do you have teeth? If so,  

this English lesson is for you. I got this  lovely email from my student Azra, who said,  

"I'm a dental student in Turkey. I love  communicating with international people,  

learning languages, and cultures. Can you help me  learn how to talk about the dentist in English?"  

Yes, Azra, I am here for you. And if you are  not Azra, I'm here for you, too. Today you are  

going to learn 30 important English phrases  to use at the dentist. You will also hear  

these in movies and TV shows, so, no matter  where you live, this is an important lesson.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com,  and like always, I have created a free PDF  

worksheet with all 30 of these important phrases,  definitions, sample sentences, and this PDF has  

something special for you. There is a 10-question  quiz at the bottom of the PDF worksheet, so that  

you can test yourself and see if you can really  communicate at the dentist office accurately.  

You can click on the link in the description  to download that free PDF worksheet today.

Let's get started by talking about vocabulary  for a regular dental checkup, and then in the  

second section we'll talk about vocabulary for  dental problems. If you're visiting the US and  

you have a toothache, or you have a problem and  you need to get it fixed in the US, you are going  

to need that vocabulary, so stick around. Let's  get started with the first vocabulary expression.

To make an appointment. "I need to make an  appointment with the dentist for next week."  

Or on the phone, you might say, "I'm calling to  make an appointment for next week." This means  

that you're just scheduling a time so that you  can go in and the dentist is waiting for you.

Important expression number two is  a checkup or a routine appointment,  

and sometimes we even combine those and  say a routine checkup. So, when you call  

the dentist and say, "I would like to make  an appointment, please." They will ask you,  

"Why do you want an appointment?" And you  might say, "I just want a checkup." Or,  

"I would just like a routine appointment."  Here in the US, it's common to go to the  

dentist at least once a year. Sometimes the  dentist will say you need to go twice a year,  

but at least once a year for a routine appointment  is common. So you could say, "I would just like to  

come in for a routine appointment, please." Or,  "I'd just like to come in for a checkup, please."

And what happens at a routine appointment?  Well, expression number three is to get your  

teeth cleaned. You might think your teeth are  fine, but the dentist has some special tools  

that they can use to make sure that your  teeth are actually clean and healthy. So,  

you might say, "I just want to get my  teeth cleaned." Or the dentist will ask,  

"Why are you here today?" You could say,  "I just want to get my teeth cleaned."

While you're getting your teeth cleaned,  you're going to need the next expressions.  

You will hear the word gums. Yes, this is with  an S. This is not talking about chewing gum or  

bubble gum. This is talking about that  red skin, right here, above your teeth,  

your gums. The dentist will check to make sure  your gums are healthy. We never use this in  

the singular. The dentist is not going to say,  "Your gum is healthy." Instead, they will say,  

"Your gums are healthy." At least we  hope that's what they'll say, right?

They will also check the enamel on your teeth.  The enamel is the hard coating around your  

teeth that should be really healthy if you're  going to have healthy teeth. So oftentimes,  

the dentist will polish the enamel on your teeth.  Well, maybe I said that wrong, because it's  

usually not the dentist who polishes the enamel on  your teeth, it is the dental hygienist. Sometimes  

we just call this person a hygienist. That is  the person who does most of the appointment.  

They will be checking your gums, cleaning your  teeth, polishing the enamel on your teeth,  

and then after you finish that part of your  appointment, who will come in? The dentist. So,  

the dentist will check to make sure that  everything is well, they will interpret the  

X-rays, if you had X-rays, and if you need to  have any more intensive surgeries or different  

things happening to your teeth, that is who will  do it, the dentist will do those types of things.

There's an interesting expression that we use  that maybe explains why we say dental hygienist.  

We often use the phrase oral hygiene. Oral means  your mouth and hygiene means to keep clean. So,  

the dental hygienist is helping you to have  good oral hygiene. They want to teach you how  

to brush your teeth well, how to floss your  teeth well, and they are annually, or yearly,  

trying to help you have the best teeth  possible for the best oral hygiene possible.

Of course, during your dentist appointment,  they will ask you to, "Sit back in the chair,  

please." These types of fancy  chairs you sit in and it goes...  

And you can lay flat. There are  bright lights above you. But you'll  

hear this phrase, "Sit back in the chair, please."

Another thing that you will hear during your  dental appointment is, "Open wide." Ah. Now,  

the tricky thing is when the dental  hygienist has his or her hands in your mouth,  

they are asking you questions sometimes  about your life, different things going on,  

and how can you respond when they ask, "Oh,  how's your job going?" "[inaudible 00:06:05]."  

This happens all the time in the US and I want  to know for you, is it the same in your country?

During your appointment, you might get x-rays.  I mentioned this before, and it is a common part  

of your routine checkup. It helps the dentist  be able to see more deeply into your teeth, and  

see if there are any problems that are starting.  We'll talk about those problems in just a moment.

The dental hygienist will probably encourage you  to brush your teeth. In the US, we are told you  

should brush your teeth twice a day, in the  morning and in the evening. What's it like in  

your country? At the dentist's office, they will  use toothpaste to brush your teeth. This is the  

common paste that you put on your toothbrush at  home to brush your teeth, but there's something  

else that they often use in the dentist office,  and that is fluoride. This is a type of treatment  

that they will either brush or wipe on the  outside of your teeth, and it will help  

to coat your enamel to make it stronger and  more resistant to any cavities and problems.

And finally, during your routine appointment  or your checkup, they will floss your teeth.  

Sometimes it's kind of uncomfortable,  in my opinion. I can floss my own teeth,  

but when someone else does it,  it kind of feels uncomfortable.  

But they will floss your teeth to  make sure there is nothing in them.

And when you're completely done, you will need  to gargle. What is gargle? Gargle is when you  

have water in your mouth, and they will put  it in there, and you'll go... And then you'll  

probably spit it out. Sometimes they have  a little tool that's like a little vacuum,  

and they put that in your mouth and  you close over that little vacuum,  

and it sucks the water out. So, you might do  that, or you might just spit the water out.

All right, we've talked about some  routine appointment activities,  

but what happens when you have a dental  problem? Let's talk about some vocabulary,  

because you might need to use this if you  live in the US, or you might hear this if  

you're watching a medical drama on TV or movies  or TV shows. These types of words come up a lot.

The first dental problem is simply a toothache.  This is probably because there's some rotting  

that's happening in your tooth. Maybe something  got stuck there and it started to rot. Ugh! So,  

you might call the dentist and  say, "I don't know what's wrong,  

but I have a terrible toothache.  Can I make an appointment?"

Another common dental problem is a sensitivity.  So, you could say, "I have a sensitivity in this  

tooth whenever I drink cold water. I don't know  what's wrong." This is a great time to see the  

dentist, because maybe there is a hole deep  into your tooth, even if it's really small,  

that's reaching the nerve, and that can  make your tooth feel really sensitive. So,  

if you have a sensitivity in any of your teeth,  it's a good idea to tell the dentist during your  

routine checkup, or make an appointment,  so that you can talk with a dentist.

Another common problem is a cavity, or if  there are multiple of them, cavities. Notice  

the pronunciation of this. There is a T at the end  of this word, but in the US, we pronounce it like  

a D sound: cavity, cavities. And what's a cavity?  It's a hole in your tooth because some bacteria,  

from food or sugar, usually, got stuck in  your tooth, and you didn't brush it out well,  

and it started to rot at your tooth. This is a  common reason why you might get a toothache. And  

in the US, unfortunately, it is very expensive to  get a cavity filled. Usually they will scoop out  

that rotten part of your tooth, and they will fill  it with some kind of enamel filler. This is a very  

expensive process, but there are public clinics  that you can sign up for that do it cheaper.

So, as I just mentioned, if you have a cavity,  what do you need to get in there? We call that  

a filling. So, you might say, "I'm going  to the dentist today to get a filling for  

the cavity that I have." That's the little  material that they put inside your tooth.  

"I need a filling." It's not the most fun  thing, right? But sometimes it's necessary.

If your cavity is really bad, you  might need to get a crown. Oh,  

that sounds so exciting! You're a queen!  You're a king! You get a crown! Not exciting,  

not fun. A crown is like a little cap that goes  over the entire tooth. If your tooth is cracked,  

or if the dentist is worried that you might crack  your tooth because the cavity was so big, they  

will put a crown covering your entire tooth. Not  as exciting as becoming the queen or king, right?

A dreaded reason to go to the dentist is  to have a root canal. Ugh! This means that  

they are taking out your entire tooth because  there is a problem. It's too rotten usually,  

and they have to extract the entire  tooth. Do you know what it's called  

underneath your gums? Because your tooth  is not just what you can see. Your tooth  

is like an iceberg. You can only see the  top, but underneath we call that the root,  

the root of your tooth. If you need to have a  root canal, it means they need to take all of  

your tooth out, including the bottom. The  drilling into your mouth sounds terrible.

A similar idea, but not quite the same, is an  extraction, or a similar expression is to have a  

tooth pulled. Now, you might have an extraction,  or you might have a tooth pulled for other  

reasons, not because it's rotten. So, for example,  when I was a child, my teeth had some problems.  

Some teeth were not falling out naturally. Babies  have their teeth, or children have their teeth  

fall out, and permanent teeth come in. But for  me, some of my baby teeth were not coming in  

correctly, so I had to go into the dentist's  office and I had to have some teeth pulled.  

It wasn't because they were rotten. I didn't need  a root canal. Instead, they had to pull the baby  

teeth, and that way, the permanent teeth could  come in more correctly, and I guess it worked!

The next dental problem is kind of a funny one. It  is your wisdom teeth. Now, why would wisdom teeth  

be a problem? We all want to be wise, right? If I  can't be wise, at least I can have wise teeth. In  

the US, it is common practice to take out what we  call your wisdom teeth. That's the teeth in the  

far back. And in the US they say that our modern  mouths are not big enough to hold those teeth,  

so we have to take them out so that you  don't have teeth problems later in life.  

I don't know how true that is in reality, but  it's a common practice. If you are a dentist,  

let me know in the comments if that's common  in your country, and if it's true or not,  

that we really do need to take out our  wisdom teeth to avoid other problems.

When you get your wisdom teeth taken  out, like when I did in high school,  

I had to get anesthesia. Anesthesia. This is  a type of medicine, we could say, that makes  

it so that you don't feel what's going on. It  could be a local anesthesia, which is a shot,  

and they'll help to numb that area, or it  could be more general, and you fall asleep. So,  

when I had my wisdom teeth pulled, I fell  asleep. I was totally out of it when they  

pulled my wisdom teeth. But if you have a cavity  filled, you will just get local anesthesia called  

Novocaine. It's very common in the US. I know  some countries give no anesthesia for cavities,  

but in the US, it is common practice.  If you get a cavity filled in the US,  

you will definitely get a big shot with Novocaine,  so that you don't feel what they're doing.

Another common problem with teeth is plaque.  Now, plaque can also be like an award,  

"I got a plaque at my job for selling so  many things." But this is a bad plaque.  

Plaque is a buildup on your teeth,  and when you go to the dentist,  

they will scrape off the plaque so that it  doesn't build up and cause other problems.

Another problem is tartar. Tartar. You  will hear this during your regular checkup,  

the dentist or the dental hygienist will say,  "You have some tartar building up between these  

teeth." And that is hardened plaque. So, plaque  and tartar are common words that you will hear  

as problems during your dental checkup. And  you can also ask the dental hygienist this,  

"Do you see much plaque? Do you see much  tartar on my teeth?" And that will tell  

you if you're doing a good job taking care  of your teeth. Do you have good oral hygiene?

I mentioned earlier that the dental hygienist  will check the health of your gums. Here,  

the skin here. What if you have a problem  with your gums? A common gum problem is  

called gingivitis. This is a crazy word.  Gingivitis is when you have a problem with  

your gums. It's really a bacterial infection,  and the dentist can help you to fix this,  

but you need to also take care  of your gums and your teeth.

The final two dental expressions that we're  going to talk about today are how to help  

your teeth become better. The first one  is whitening. This is very controversial,  

I understand, but some countries really are  obsessed with whitening their teeth. There  

are different ways to do this. There's  dental ways at the dentist's office,  

there are home ways that you can do this, but  some countries really like to whiten their teeth.

And our final expression is one also that helps  you to make your teeth better, so to speak,  

and that is braces. This is a rite of passage  in the US. When you are maybe 12 or 13,  

a lot of kids get braces. This  helps to straighten your teeth,  

and it also helps your jaw usually, so that  your teeth come together in a better way,  

and you have less jaw problems when you're  older, especially when you're really old.

I had braces. I had braces for  a long time. It's so annoying,  

because you have to clean in each of those  braces. You can't eat an apple like this,  

because the braces might pop off. I hope  for my children if they need to have braces,  

I hope there's some more modern technology  that has happened since I was a kid to make  

that process easier for them. Who knows? But it  is really common in the US to get braces. So,  

I wonder for you, have you ever had braces?  Is it common in your country? I know a lot of  

these dental practices are cultural, so I'm  very curious to hear what it's like for you.

Congratulations on learning these 30 important  dentist expressions in English. Don't forget to  

download the free PDF worksheet because you can  challenge yourself. Did you really understand  

and remember all of these dental expressions?  When you download that free PDF worksheet,  

you can take the 10 question quiz. Test yourself:  how well did you do? You can click on the link in  

the description to download that free PDF  worksheet today. It is my gift to you to  

help you really remember what you're learning.  Thanks so much for learning English with me,  

and I'll see you again next Friday for a  new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.

But wait! Do you want more? I recommend watching  this video next, where you will hear me call the  

doctor's office to make an appointment. A lot  of the vocabulary you learned today, you will  

hear in that lesson used in real life. See if you  can understand it. I'll see you in that lesson.