Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 107, Going to the Dentist.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 107.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
On today's podcast, we're going to go to the dentist.
Let's go.
I went to the dentist to get a checkup and cleaning.
I showed up at the dentist office a few minutes before 10.
I gave the receptionist my name and told her that I had a 10 a.m. appointment.
She said that the doctor was running a little late and that I should take a seat.
After about 15 minutes, a dental assistant came out and told me to follow her.
She led me to a room and told me to take a seat in the exam chair, and then she put a dental bib on me.
The dentist came into the room.
Hello, how are you today?
Here for your six-month checkup?
I'm fine, Dr. Mecham.
Yes, just a cleaning and check-up today.
Oh, fine.
Let's take a look.
She probed my teeth and checked my gums.
Well, it looks like you have a cavity and your crown is loose.
We need to fill that cavity before it gets any worse, and the crown needs to be refitted.
Make an appointment for next week, and I'll take care of them.
Okay, I'll do that.
But my crown was just put on last year.
Will my dental insurance cover the work?
Since you had that done here, we'll take care of it.
There won't be a charge.
And your insurance should cover the work on the cavity.
Now, I'm going to have the hygienist do your cleaning, and I'll see you soon for the other work.
Thanks, Doctor.
The hygienist came into the room and had me rinse with mouthwash.
She began her cleaning and finished by polishing my teeth.
On my way out, I tried to make an appointment for the following week.
Unfortunately, there were no appointments available for two weeks, and the time they had was an inconvenient one.
But I said I'd manage.
I have to say...
Going to the dentist can be a pain in the mouth and in the butt.
Today we are at the dentist and we are going to the dentist for a checkup and a cleaning.
A checkup C-H-E-C-K hyphen U-P is when you go to the dentist or the doctor and there's nothing wrong with you, but you want the doctor, or here, the dentist, to look at you, to look at your teeth and to see if they are okay.
You can also go to the doctor for a checkup. where he checks your health.
A cleaning is when they clean your teeth at the dentist.
I said I showed up at the doctor's office a few minutes before 10.
To show up means, of course, to arrive at a place.
The doctor apparently was running a little late, for To be running a little late or to be running late means that they're not on schedule.
So you have an appointment at 10 o'clock, but the dentist can't see you until 10.30.
They're running a half hour late, we would say.
A dental assistant, who is someone who helps the dentist, came and put me in one of the exam chairs.
And that's the chair you sit in at a dentist's office, the exam or examination chair.
And she put a dental bib on me.
A bib, B-I-B is what they put on you, on your neck, so that it covers the front of your clothing, so that your clothing doesn't get dirty.
We use this same word for a little baby who has a bib around their neck, so when they're eating they don't spill food on their clothes or let food fall onto their clothes.
The dentist comes in and asks me if I'm here for a checkup.
I say I am.
So she probed my teeth and checked my gums.
To probe my teeth means to take the little metal instrument that the dentist has and they check your teeth to make sure you don't have any cavities.
A cavity, C-A-V-I-T-Y, is a hole in your tooth.
Well, she probed my teeth and she checked my gums.
My gums, G-U-M-S, plural.
My gums are the part of your mouth that's below the teeth, the red part.
It's where the skin is.
The teeth are in the gums.
The bottom of the teeth are in the gums.
The dentist said that I had a cavity, a hole, in one of my teeth and that my crown was loose.
My crown, C-R-O-W-N, when a dentist talks about a crown, he or she means it's like a cap.
That's something that's put on top of a tooth. that is falling apart, that isn't healthy.
And so they put a crown on.
It looks just like a tooth.
It's like a little jacket for your tooth.
And the word crown is also used for what you put on a king would put on his head, or a queen would put on her head.
That's a crown, that round thing with diamonds or whatever.
Well, this is a crown for your teeth.
Often crowns are made of gold.
At least they used to be made of gold.
Probably too expensive now.
The dentist said that she needed to fill my cavity.
To fill a cavity or to put in a filling means that they take a little drill and they clean out the hole and then they put in something to fill the hole so the tooth doesn't have more damage done to it that the hole doesn't get bigger.
And we call that a filling and the verb to fill.
Just like you would fill a glass with water, pour water into it and fill it.
So we use the same verb for what you put in your teeth.
And the noun is filling.
My crown needed to be refitted.
To fit something means to put it on and make sure that it's the right size.
To refit it means they have to take it off and adjust it and then put it back on again.
I asked my dentist if my insurance, my dental insurance, would cover the work.
Dental insurance, of course, is insurance that you buy or that your company buys, that you work for and it pays for a certain amount of your dental work.
Some dental insurance plans cover half of the cost and some cover eighty percent of the costs.
It depends on how much insurance you buy.
Most companies for full-time employees in the united states will have some health insurance private health insurance and some dental insurance.
Course, medical care in the united states is mostly private And there's very little public assistance public help for health problems.
The dentist said that there wouldn't be a charge for the crown.
A charge meaning I wouldn't have to pay money.
A charge is like a bill.
The verb to charge me, for example, would mean to bill me, to give me a bill.
After the dentist left, the hygienist came in to do my cleaning.
A hygienist, H-Y-G-I-E-N-I-S-T, is someone who is responsible for cleaning your teeth.
Hygiene is another word that we sometimes use for the idea of something being clean, of cleansiness.
So a hygienist makes sure your teeth are clean.
To do that, she had me rinse with mouthwash.
To rinse is to take something like water, in this case, or mouthwash all one word and not to drink it, but to put it in your mouth and to move it back and forth.
The mouthwash, which is usually green or blue, helps clean your mouth and your teeth.
The hygienist then polished my teeth.
To polish, P-O-L-I-S-H is a verb which means usually to put some sort of chemical on it to make it even cleaner, to remove any dirt or stains.
For example, if you drink a lot of coffee or tea, your teeth can get brown.
So the hygienist will clean it and then polish it.
So it's another type of cleaning.
Well unfortunately, I had to return to the dentist and they didn't have any appointments for the following week.
I told them that I would take an appointment two weeks from now.
Even though it was inconvenient, I said I'd manage.
When you say I'll manage or I'd manage, To manage here means I'll be able to take care of it.
It won't cause me any great problems.
I'll manage.
I can take care of the situation.
I said, I have to say, going to the dentist can be a pain.
I have to say is an expression we use when you're going to say something very honest.
It's sort of like to tell the truth.
I have to say I'm not very happy with my government.
Or I have to say I'm very happy that the holidays are coming up.
The dentist, I said, can be a pain in the mouth and in the butt.
Well, to be a pain as a noun, a pain, means that it's a problem.
It causes me problems.
It's a pain in the mouth.
Literally, it can cause pain in your mouth.
To be a pain in the butt means to be very inconvenient, and that's an informal slang expression.
Your butt, I think you probably know, is that thing you sit on.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
I went to the dentist to get a checkup and cleaning.
I showed up at the dentist's office a few minutes before 10.
I gave the receptionist my name and told her that I had a 10 AM appointment.
She said that the doctor was running a little late and that I should take a seat.
After about 15 minutes, a dental assistant came out and told me to follow her.
She led me to a room and told me to take a seat in the exam chair, and then she put a dental bib on me.
The dentist came into the room.
Hello, how are you today?
Here for your six-month checkup?
I'm fine, Dr. Mecham.
Yes, just a cleaning and checkup today.
Oh, fine.
Let's take a look.
She probed my teeth and checked my gums.
Well, it looks like you have a cavity and your crown is loose.
We need to fill that cavity before it gets any worse, and the crown needs to be refitted.
Make an appointment for next week, and I'll take care of them.
Okay, I'll do that.
But my crown was just put on last year.
Will my dental insurance cover the work?
Since you had that done here, we'll take care of it.
There won't be a charge.
And your insurance should cover the work on the cavity.
Now, I'm going to have the hygienist do your cleaning, and I'll see you soon for the other work.
Thanks, Doctor.
The hygienist came into the room and had me rinse with mouthwash.
She began her cleaning and finished by polishing my teeth.
On my way out, I tried to make an appointment for the following week.
Unfortunately, there were no appointments available for two weeks, and the time they had was an inconvenient one, but I said I'd manage.
I have to say, going to the dentist can be a pain in the mouth and in the butt.
That brings us to the end of this ESL podcast.
I want to thank you for listening.
I'm Jeff McQuillan from Los Angeles, California.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
