If you are frightened of the dentist
Being frightened of dentistry is common and it is not something you have to get over before you can be seen. These are the practical things you can ask for, and the words to use.
Dentistry can feel daunting. Understanding it shouldn’t.
An independent site written by one dentist — not a practice. It is here to help you prepare for treatment, follow what happens during it, and find the practical instructions again afterwards.
Panoramic radiograph
Farhang Amini · CC BY 4.0
Where to start
Three ways in
What people arrive asking
Start with the question you came with
The tooth itself
Four layers, and why each one matters to you
Most dental words describe one of four materials. Knowing which one a dentist is talking about makes a surprising amount of the rest fall into place — so pick a layer and see what it does.
The hardest tissue in the body
A shell of densely packed mineral, with no living cells in it at all. That is why it cannot repair itself once the surface breaks — and why early decay, while the surface still holds, is the moment worth catching.
Where sensitivity comes from
Softer than enamel and threaded with microscopic tubules running to the nerve. Where enamel wears through — or where a receded gum line has lost the thin cementum that covers the root — those tubules open at the surface, and cold moves the fluid inside them, which is what the nerve feels.
The living core
Nerve and blood supply, sealed in the middle of the tooth. When decay reaches it the pain changes character — lingering rather than sharp — and that is the point at which a filling is no longer enough.
What actually holds a tooth in
A tooth is suspended in bone by fibres, not fused to it. Gum disease attacks that attachment rather than the tooth itself, which is how entirely healthy teeth are lost.
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Who writes this
Dr Choudhary, a dentist
This site is written by one person, not a practice. It does not take appointments and does not sell anything. It exists because the ten minutes after a dental appointment are when most of what was said falls out of your head.
More about this site