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What is some dental vocabulary?


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Posted

I'm having a hard time finding some of the vocabulary to describe a recent couple of trips to the dentist for my upcoming chinese class. I can find some easy ones, like 牙 yá tooth, and 牙医 yá yī dentist, etc. Could people give me a few other "useful" terms and phrases? Also, tips on how to find chinese translations of these "more obscure" words on the internet?

These will probably come in handy for me when I get to China too!

toothache

cracked tooth

filling

crown

drill

nerves (in the tooth, and in the jaw)

anasthetic

novacaine (a specific anasthetic, which I can't use, which is why I wanted to know it's name)

dental hygenist (the person who cleans your teeth)

dental assistant (who helps the dentist when working on teeth)

Thanks much!

Posted

Interesting...i shall fill you in! :mrgreen:

toothache 牙痛/牙齿*痛 ya2 tong4 / ya2 chi3 tong4 "tooth pain"

cracked tooth 牙齿破裂** ya2 chi3 po4 lie4 "tooth crack"

filling 补牙 bu3 ya2 "mend tooth"

crown 牙冠*** ya2 guan1 "tooth crown"

drill 电钻 dian4 zuan4 "electric drill"

nerves (in the tooth, and in the jaw) 牙神经**** ya2 shen2 jing1 "tooth nerves"

anasthetic 麻醉药/剂 ma2 zui4 yao4/ ji4 "numb drunken medicine/substance"

novacaine (a specific anasthetic, which I can't use, which is why I wanted to know it's name) sorry no luck, cant find in on the web, i cant translate for you too 'cos for medicine any misunderstanding can be very serious, anyway since its commonly used by dentist upon my search on net, maybe you can say 牙用麻醉剂 ya2 yong4 ma2 zui4 ji4 "anasthetic for tooth"

dental hygenist (the person who cleans your teeth) aka dentist 牙医 ya2 yi1 "tooth doctor"

dental assistant (who helps the dentist when working on teeth) maybe its 牙医助手 ya2 yi1zhu4 shou3 "tooth doctor assistant"

* 牙and齿 means the same thing...but you know in Chinese many words comes in a pair "词" with exactly the same meaning, perhaps to eradicate any homophones(did i spell correctly? lol) you just have to learn the language to know when to use what. also 牙and齿 or 牙齿 can mean tooth or teeth...

** not sure...sorry :mrgreen:

***yeppy this is the interesting one, you probably mean "dental caps", the 冠 here literally means crown, but 牙冠 means the part of the teeth that is visible. my ahma (grandma in hokkien) used to have "golden dental caps" (wow cool...haha), and we just called it 金牙 jin1 ya2 "gold teeth"

**** take note that 神经 can also mean "crazy", most commonly in the form 神经病 shen2 jing1 bing4; 牙神经 can also be called 牙神经线 ya2 shen2 jing1 xian4 "tooth nerve line"

Could people give me a few other "useful" terms and phrases?

口腔 kou3 qiang1 mouth cavity

牙龈 ya2 yin2 gums

牙缝 ya2 feng4 the gap between teeth

牙根 ya2 gen2 teeth root

adjectives

洁白(jie2 bai2)的牙齿 clean white teeth

坚固(jian1 gu4)的牙齿 strong and tough teeth

健康(jian4 kang1)的牙齿 healthy teeth

teethy names

门牙 men2 ya2 incisors "door teeth"

犬牙 quan3 ya2 canines "dog teeth"

前臼牙 qian2 jiu4 ya2 premolars "before molar"

臼牙 jiu4 ya2 molar,haha...look at how the 臼 looks like molar...cool

Also, tips on how to find chinese translations of these "more obscure" words on the internet?

Try google translation tools, its not bad..:mrgreen:

That's all folks

Posted

Thanks both!

Not sure I understand why "dental doctor" could be correct for hygenist. A hygenist (AFAIK) doesn't need very much training, compared to either a dentist, or a dental assistant.

Posted

Thanks for the link!

One of my problems is that I was using an american spelling. Apparently the required spelling is "hygienist" (note the "i")

Posted

If you desire, you can contact my dentist Dr Serena Hu in Mt View, CA 加州山景城 for lots of Chinese dental terms. 650-938-3838. She's fully bilingual.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Quite specialised vocab, but seriously useful if you live in China :)

What about X-ray, panoramic X-ray & tooth removal ?

Posted
What about X-ray, panoramic X-ray & tooth removal ?

X-ray : X 光

panoramic X-ray : 全景 X 光

tooth removal : Formal: 去除牙齿 Everyday: 拔牙

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