Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 767, Taking Care of Your Teeth.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 767.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode has a dialogue between George and Martha about taking care of your teeth.
Let's get started.
Oh, I have a toothache.
That would be the last resort.
I hate going to the dentist.
I don't like needles, and the sound of the drill scares me to death.
I'm hoping the toothache will just go away.
You really should get that checked out.
Do you want me to make an appointment for you with my dentist?
No thanks.
I haven't seen a dentist in years and I don't plan to now unless I have no choice.
Years?
You haven't been to a dentist in years?
Haven't you ever heard of preventive care?
You're supposed to get a dental cleaning twice a year.
I don't follow doctor and dentist guidelines like that.
I brush my teeth every day.
That's good enough.
No, it's not.
You should be flossing every day and rinsing your mouth with mouthwash to keep your teeth and gums healthy.
If you haven't been to the dentist in years, I'm not surprised you didn't know that.
Stop preaching.
I'll go to the dentist when I need to.
Like now.
Maybe.
It doesn't hurt that much anymore.
I never knew you were such a chicken.
Fuck, fuck.
Martha begins our dialogue by saying, Oh, I have a toothache.
A toothache, T-O-O-T-H-A-C-H-E, one word, is when you have a pain in your tooth, your teeth, which is the plural of tooth, are of course these white things inside your mouth that you use to eat.
Martha has a toothache.
You can have a toothache.
You can have a headache.
You can have a stomachache, depending on what part of your body hurts.
George says, To be in for something means you're going to have to do something very soon.
Often we use that expression when we're talking about something that isn't very nice, something That usually means you don't understand something bad that is going to happen to you.
A dentist, D-E-N-T-I-S-T, is a person who works on, a doctor who works on your teeth.
A medical doctor who takes care of or specializes in taking care of teeth.
Martha says going to the doctor would be the last resort.
The expression the last resort, R-E-S-O-R-T, means it's the last option you will choose.
Only after you do everything else.
It's the one that you don't want to do and will only do because nothing else works.
Perhaps it's very expensive.
Perhaps it's just very unpleasant or even embarrassing.
Martha says, I don't like needles.
Needles are sharp objects.
They stick into your body to put drugs into them, usually.
Martha doesn't like the sound of the drill.
She says, the sound of the drill scares me to death, makes me very frightened.
A drill, D-R-I-L-L, here refers to a machine that makes holes in something.
You can use a drill to make a hole in your wall if you are putting something on your wall.
Well, dentists use drills to make holes in your teeth in order to repair them.
Drill actually has a couple of different meanings.
Those can be found in, where else, our learning guide.
Martha says, I'm hoping the toothache will just go away, meaning it will disappear.
I will no longer have it.
George says, you really should get that checked out.
When someone says you need to have something checked out, they mean examined or reviewed, especially by someone who is an expert in that area.
My foot is hurting me.
You should really have a podiatrist, a foot doctor, check that out.
To check out has some other meanings in English.
You can say, I'm going to check out that movie.
That means I'm going to watch it or I'm going to read about it or investigate it.
Or check out this guy walking down the street.
There it means simply look at this guy.
There's actually even more meanings of this two-word phrasal verb, to check out.
You can use it to refer to taking a book out of the library.
I'm going to check out a book.
But here, it refers to having someone who's an expert examine or look at something.
George says, do you want me to make an appointment for you with my dentist?
An appointment is a particular day and time that you are going to see someone.
It's like a date.
But when we talk about business things or going to a doctor or dentist or Having an appointment is the time and day you are going to see that person.
Martha says, no thanks.
I haven't seen a dentist in years.
And I don't plan to now unless I have no choice.
She hasn't gone to the dentist in many years and she isn't going to go unless she has to, unless she has no other option or choice.
George is surprised.
He says years.
He's surprised that Martha hasn't been to a dentist in years.
You haven't been to a dentist in years?
Haven't you ever heard of preventive care?
To prevent, P-R-E-V-E-N-T, means to make sure something does not happen.
Preventive, then, is an adjective.
Care here is like a medical treatment or some action that you do so that you are healthy.
Preventative care are things that you do so that you don't get sick.
So you should wash your hands with soap and water after using the bathroom and before eating with your hands to prevent you from getting sick later.
That's preventative care.
Martha apparently, we guess, doesn't believe in preventative care.
George says you're supposed to get a dental cleaning twice a year.
The word dental refers to your teeth.
Dental cleaning then, is a process where you go and have your teeth cleaned, usually by someone who works with the dentist, not actually the dentist.
Usually the person who cleans your teeth is called a dental hygienist.
This is sort of like the dentist assistant that cleans your teeth and makes sure that you don't have any problems with your teeth.
Martha says I don't follow doctor and dentist guidelines like that.
I don't follow the rules that doctors and dentists give me, she's saying.
I brush my teeth every day.
That's good enough.
That's sufficient.
To brush B-R-U-S-H your teeth means to take a small little tool really, that you put something on called toothpaste.
The tool is called a brush or a toothbrush and you put it in your mouth and you move it back and forth to clean your teeth.
Or you get one of those machines where it moves for you.
I like those.
I have one of those.
I forget what they're called.
Sonicare or something like that.
Anyway, Martha says she brushes her teeth every day and that should be enough.
George says no, it's not.
It's not sufficient.
It's not enough.
It's not good enough.
You should be flossing every day.
To floss F-L-O-S-S is to take a small piece of string and put it in between each of your teeth to remove any food that is stuck there.
That is still there.
Because if it stays there, it could eventually cause what is called a cavity, C-A-V-I-T-Y.
A cavity is like a hole in your tooth that the dentist then has to fill or fix.
George says that Martha should be flossing every day and rinsing her mouth.
To rinse R-I-N-S-E means to put some liquid in your mouth, something like water, and move the liquid back and forth, and then usually you spit the liquid out again.
The specific liquid you would use here would be mouthwash.
Mouthwash is a special kind of liquid that is supposed to help keep your teeth healthy.
He says that if you rinse your mouth with mouthwash, it will keep your teeth and gums healthy.
Gums, G-U-M-S, is what your teeth are stuck into in your mouth.
It's the area of the skin on the inside of your mouth that holds your teeth in your mouth.
Gum has a couple of different meanings in English, however.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more of those.
George says, if you haven't been to a dentist in years, I'm not surprised you didn't know that.
Martha says to George, stop preaching to preach P-R-E-A-C-H.
In this context means to give someone else advice that they don't want, usually in such a way that you are bothering them or you are acting as if you were better than them.
To preach can also be a verb used in a religious sense, something that a minister or a rabbi or a priest might do.
But here it means to give advice that someone doesn't want.
Martha says, stop preaching.
I'll go to the dentist when I need to.
George says, like now, meaning you need to go now.
Martha says, maybe.
It doesn't hurt that much anymore.
George said, I never knew you were such a chicken.
A chicken is an animal that you can eat, but chicken here means is used to describe someone who is scared of doing something, who is afraid, someone who is what we would call a coward C-O-W-A-R-D.
Someone who is not brave.
George says, I never knew you were such a chicken, that you were so afraid.
Martha makes a chicken noise that we would make in English.
She's saying, of course, that yes, she is a chicken.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Oh, I have a toothache.
It sounds like you're in for a visit to the dentist.
That would be the last resort.
I hate going to the dentist.
I don't like needles, and the sound of the drill scares me to death.
I'm hoping the toothache will just go away.
You really should get that checked out.
Do you want me to make an appointment for you with my dentist?
No, thanks.
I haven't seen a dentist in years, and I don't plan to now unless I have no choice.
Years?
You haven't been to a dentist in years?
Haven't you ever heard of preventive care?
You're supposed to get a dental cleaning twice a year.
I don't follow doctor and dentist guidelines like that.
I brush my teeth every day.
That's good enough.
No, it's not.
You should be flossing every day and rinsing your mouth with mouthwash to keep your teeth and gums healthy.
If you haven't been to the dentist in years, I'm not surprised you didn't know that.
Stop preaching.
I'll go to the dentist when I need to.
Like now?
Maybe.
It doesn't hurt that much anymore.
I never knew you were such a chicken.
We hope you make an appointment each day to listen to a little bit of our ESL podcast, especially to listen to the wonderful scripts by our scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
