If you’re planning to visit your dentist any time soon, it would be good to brush up on some common terms that dental professionals use. Doing so would make it easier for you to understand your dentist when you are discussing your dental health. Although some dentists explain dental jargons, most do not, leaving their patients wondering what it was all about.
Below are a few of the most commonly used dental terms you would most likely hear on your next dental appointment:
Intraoral Camera
An intraoral camera is a handheld video camera that dentists use to examine and magnify everything inside your mouth. It can take still photos and video that you may view through a monitor or TV screen.
Bonding
Bonding is a method used for dental restoration. It is a process to adhere resin that has the same color as the tooth to the tooth’s surface, creating a bond. Resin is used for bonding because of its likeness to enamel. The composite resin bonding procedure is where the resin is bonded to a tooth’s surface, carved into shape, hardened, and then polished.
Crown
A crown is a dental restoration done to cover your tooth. Crowns are caps, covers, or replacements utilized to restore the missing part of a damaged tooth.
DDS
DDS stands for Doctor of Dental Surgery.
DMD
DMD stands for Doctor of Medical Dentistry.
Implant
An implant is a permanent dental appliance used for the replacement of a tooth. An artificial mechanism substituting the tooth root is often made of titanium. The implant may secure a denture, bridge, or artificial tooth.
Veneer
Veneers are plastic or porcelain fused directly to the facing of a tooth to enhance your teeth’s general appearance, and your smile. Dentists use veneers to repair chipped, cracked, or worn teeth.
Impression
An impression is a cast of the teeth and soft tissues made by the dentist, to get an accurate copy of the mouth, prior to having a bridge, denture, or major implant. Impressions are also taken to correctly fit custom mouth guards.
Mouth Guard
A mouth guard is an acrylic tool used to prevent wear and damage of the temporomandibular area in the mouth, caused by the grinding of teeth while sleeping.
Laughing Gas
Laughing gas (nitrous oxide) is an odorless anesthetic that when inhaled produces relative sedation. It eases anxiety, and creates a state of relaxation. Dentists use laughing gas as a general anesthetic to make your encounter less traumatic, in case you have dental phobia.
Pit
A pit is a minor defect in your tooth’s enamel. It often appears where the four formative sections of an emerging tooth join.