Going To The Dentist

Hello everyone! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

And I’m Erica.

And today we’re gonna be going to one of the least favorite places of many, many people.

So, it must be the dentist.

Exactly, that place where you have to go every six months, but you…

You probably don’t go…

Hehe. You probably don’t. I know, I don’t go…

No…

Every six months.

Me neither.

So, yeah, we’re gonna be going to the dentist and, of course, we’re gonna be looking at a lot of great vocabulary, related to teeth and all that crazy stuff dentists do.

Yes, and we’ll also learn some really interesting phrases, um, so, Marco, let’s get started with our “vocabulary preview”. Voice: Vocabulary preview.

Okay, in vocabulary preview today we have two words. Let’s take a look at the first one – toothache.

Toothache.

Toothache.

Toothache.

Okay, so, we’ve seen before this, uh… this ending “-ache”, right?

Right.

It means that hurts.

Exactly.

So, again, a toothache would be…

A hurting tooth.

A hurting tooth.

Yes.

We can also say stomachache…

Uhu.

Headache.

Yeah.

Pretty much everything can… [NOTE: pretty much = almost, basically, in most cases, most of the time, etc.]

Ache.

Ache.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, our next word – x-ray.

X-ray.

X-ray. X, hyphen (“-“), R, A, Y.

Okay, pretty easy word.

Uhu.

So, when you go to the doctor, many times you’ll get an x-ray.

It is a picture of your bones.

Right, so, that’s an x-ray.

Alright, well, we’re going to hear both of these words in the dialogue. So, why don’t we listen as Gary visits his dentist?

Okay, that always happens the dentist says “no, it’s not gonna hurt, don’t worry about it”…

But it always hurts much more than he says.

Exactly. So, in this dialogue we saw some interesting words, when the dentist was describing what problems Gary had.

Yes. So, why don’t we look at those now in “language takeaway”? Voice: Language takeaway.

Alright, let’s take a look at our first word.

So, Gary said that his face was all swollen.

Swollen.

Swollen.

Swollen.

So, swollen is an adjective, right Marco?

Right, so, his face is or was swollen.

It was bigger.

Yeah, his face was bigger than normal.

Yes, often when you hurt yourself, that part of your body becomes swollen.

Swollen, right.

Uhu.

So, you have to put some ice on it usually and then the swelling will go down.

And that’s the noun, the swelling.

Right.

Uhu.

The swelling. And, well, the verb, to swell.

Alright, three words for the price of one.

So, let’s listen to some examples of how we would use the swelling, swollen, and to swell. Voice: Example one.

My nose is swollen; it’s the size of a foot ball. Voice: Example two.

Put some ice on your foot and the swelling will go down. Voice: Example three.

I got bitten by a spider and my hand is swelling up.

Aright, so…

Uhu.

Gary’s face was swollen and he thought that it was his wisdom teeth.

Wisdom teeth.

Wisdom teeth.

Okay, so, this is interesting, wisdom is like wise.

Yeah, knowledge.

Knowledge.

Yeah.

So, these teeth, they’re not knowledgeable, but they’re called wisdom teeth.

They are the teeth that grow last in your mouth, right?

Right, they are the last teeth at the very end of your mouth.

Yes, and usually you get them when you are about twenty.

Uhu. And since they come out at this age, sometimes they interfere… they, uh, hurt a little bit, so you have to get them taken out. [NOTE: (1) interfere in this context means to intersect or to impede, for example, these two teeth interfere, they impede each other; (2) to get a tooth taken out means to remove a tooth; you might also say to get a tooth pulled, for example, I got my wisdom teeth pulled this morning]

Yes, alright, wisdom teeth.

Wisdom teeth, okay. Now, for our next word and something that we all got as children. Cavity.

Cavity.

A cavity.

A cavity. It’s a hole in your tooth.

A hole in your tooth.

Uhu.

And it’s caused by…

Too much sugar.

Too much sugar, right?

Yeah.

Or not brushing your teeth enough.

Yeah.

So, that’s why everyone had it, I think, as children cavities.

I never had a cavity.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow, didn’t have much sugar?

I guess I was a bit of a health nut when I was a kid [NOTE: a health nut basically refers to a person who obsessed with their health and, particularly, with healthy nutrition ]

Uh, okay.

Well, no, I wasn’t, my mom was.

Hehe.

No, I guess not. Alright, but enough about my eating habits, let’s talk about our next word, crown.

Crown.

A crown.

So, a crown, this is interesting.

We’re not taking kings and queens.

Right, that’s the first thing that comes to mind, right?

Yeah.

No, a crown is actually the visible part of your teeth.

Okay, so, there’s one part of your tooth that’s inside that you can’t see, right?

Right, that’s called the root.

Yes, so, when he said “your crown is loose”, what’s he talking really about the actual tooth?

So, sometimes people will have… will lose a tooth or have a really bad cavity.

Uhu.

So, the dentist needs to make a new crown or a new visible part of the tooth for you, so, sometimes it’ll be made of gold…

Yep, or…

You know…

Or porcelain. [NOTE: porcelain is a hard ceramic material; for example, porcelain dishes]

Porcelain.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So, a crown, it’s like, ah, a really, really, really big filling.

Uhu.

Yep.

A crown, so his crown needed to be refitted or put back into place.

Yes, now our final word, a filling. [NOTE: don’t confuse this word with another one, which sounds similarly - feeling]

Filling.

A filling.

A filling.

So, I just said this word previously.

Uhu.

Now, when you have a cavity…

Uhu.

You need to fill it in.

Right, you need to fill it with something.

Yes.

It’s usually some sort of paste.

Aha. And it gets really hard…

And it gets…

Just like your tooth.

Exactly, so, then it covers up this cavity. Filling.

A filling.

I have many fillings, I wasn’t, uh, very healthy as a kid.

Alright, not a good tooth brusher.

Hehe. Exactly. So, why don’t we listen to this dialogue again and then we’ll come back and talk a little bit about some of the interesting phrases, that the doctor used. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Well, the dentist used three really interesting phrases and I wanna look at the first one. What seems to be the problem?

What seems to be the problem?

What seems to be the problem?

Okay, very easy, little sentence to ask somebody “what’s wrong”.

Exactly.

Right.

Um, and… I mean these are small easy words, but when you put them together they sound really natural, um, and… and really fluent.

Uhu. So, if you ask somebody what seems to be the problem, it’s very polite…

Yep.

And it’s a very good way of asking “what’s wrong”.

Yes.

Alright.

Our next phrase also made up of simple words. Let’s have a look.

Let’s have a look.

Let’s have a look.

So, this is a phrase, that maybe your mechanic of your dentist or your doctor will say.

Or anyone.

Right.

Your…

Let’s have a look

Let’s look at it and see what the problem is.

Hm, okay, let’s have a look.

Okay, and our final phrase. It doesn’t look good.

It doesn’t look good.

It doesn’t look good.

So, I can use this phrase for an object, right?

Yeah.

Like, uh, this house doesn’t look good.

Yes, but here it’s used a little bit differently. So, why don’t we listen to some examples to help us understand the meaning? Voice: Example one.

John told me it doesn’t look good for me, I probably won’t get the job. Voice: Example two.

It doesn’t look good for Michael Jackson. He’s in a lot of debt. Voice: Example three.

You know, the economy doesn’t look very good.

Okay, so, in the examples we can see, that they are using it for the situation.

Yeah.

It looks maybe problematic.

Yeah, it’ll… so, when you say it doesn’t look good, you basically mean… there are going to be problems.

Uhu. Alright, it doesn’t look good.

Yeah.

Okay, so, great phrases, great words, let’s listen to our, uh, “Gary at the dentist” one more time, then we’ll come back and talk a little bit more.

Well, Marco, um, speaking of dentists, have you ever had an experience like this, where you’ve spat out the tooth at the dentist?

Hehe. Well, nothing so, uh, serious as this, but, actually, recently when I was in Cambodia…

Alright, you called us from Cambodia.

Yeah, Hehe. Well, our taxi driver offered us to have some local food…

Uhu.

And he said “well, we’re gonna have dog”, so that was…

Oh, dear…

Interesting, uh, actually it wasn’t that bad, it was pretty good, but, you know, if you get around the fact that it’s a dog…

So, what does this have to do with your teeth?

I was eating it and I bit a bone…

Oh.

That was hidden…

Okay.

And I chipped my tooth.

So, you broke part of your tooth.

Yeah, like half of it… which I… I had already chipped before, so I had to go to the dentist and so the dentist created a new crown with… not with gold or porcelain, actually with a paste.

Ouh.

Aha, and then it becomes hard and it just looks normal. It doesn’t even look like I have a… a fake crown, sort of say.

But, dentists can be really expensive, so how much did this cost?

W… Hehe. Well, this was for the bargain price of ten dollars. [NOTE: for a bargain price means for a relatively small amount of money]

Ten dollars.

Ten dollars…

Nice.

That’s how much it costs.

So, we should all go to Cambodia for dentistry.

For… yeah, because actually he was pretty good. He looked very young, though, I was kind of scared, because when he walked in he looked like he was nineteen, but I asked him his age and he was like thirty.

Okay, well, you’re very trusting. [NOTE: trusting is an adjective and it refers to a person who believes other people easily]

Hehe. Yeah, so, I imagine that you guys maybe have some dental experiences. So, why don’t you come to our website and tell us all about it.

Yeah, visit us at englishpod.com and you can find lots more resources, uh, for learning English there. Well, guys thanks for listening and until next time… Bye!

Good bye!