# dental

Pronunciation: say "DEN-tuhl" /ˈdɛn.təl/

## Adjective

1. Relating to or involving the teeth.
   - Simple: About or related to the teeth.
   - _Fluoride in the water supply has improved dental health in many towns._
   - _Heavy dental wear on the skull suggests the animal chewed tough plants all its life._
2. Relating to dentistry or to the work of dentists.
   - Simple: About dentistry, the work of dentists.
   - _She graduated from dental school last spring and joined a practice downtown._
   - _Many dental clinics now take digital X-rays instead of using film._
4. Pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the upper front teeth, or with the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge so that the tip rests near the teeth.
   - Simple: Made with the tip of your tongue touching or close to your top front teeth.
   - _English has two dental fricatives, the sounds at the start of "thin" and "then."_
   - _Many languages of India keep dental and retroflex consonants apart as separate sounds._

## Noun

3. In veterinary medicine, a cleaning and polishing of an animal's teeth.
   - Simple: A cleaning and polishing of an animal's teeth, done by a vet.
   - _The vet recommended a dental for our older cat because of the tartar on her back teeth._
   - _The practice schedules its dentals early so the animals have the afternoon to recover._
5. A speech sound made with the tongue touching or close to the upper front teeth.
   - Simple: A speech sound you make with your tongue against or near your top teeth.
   - _In Hindi, a dental and a retroflex consonant can be the only difference between two words._
   - _English speakers learning Spanish often pronounce its dentals too far back in the mouth._

## Adjective

6. Pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue, in the broad sense of coronal. *(rare)*
   - Simple: Made with the tip or the front part of the tongue, wherever it touches.

## Origin

Borrowed from Middle French dental or Late Latin dentālis, from dēns ("a tooth") + the adjective suffix -ālis ("-al").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/dental (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).