Dental fillings

Listening activity

Conversation practice

1. Have you had your wisdom teeth pulled?
2. Do you floss?
3. How often do you get a dental cleaning?
4. Do you have any cavities?
5. Have you ever had braces?
6. What do you think a dental phobia is?
7. Why are people anxious about visiting their dentists?
8. What does ‘filling’ mean?

9. What is your favourite pie filling? 🥧

10. Do you usually eat filling breakfasts? 🥞

11. Which pillow filling do you use? A synthetic filling or down filling (filling made of feathers)? 🛏️

12. How many dental fillings does an average adult have? 🦷

Exercise 1

Take a look at those three sentences and fill the gaps using the correct grammatical structures. Then watch the clip and check if you were right.

1. I woke up that morning and a filling that I ... (have), had fallen out.
2. Take care of your teeth cause you don’t want to have massive fillings like I ... (have to).
3. I woke up that morning and I could feel with my tongue that a piece of my tooth ... (side off) my filling.

Let’s watch the clip! 🎥

Play this video from 39:07 to 39:55.

Exercise 2

Watch the clip and fill in the gaps.

1. Take care of your teeth, please. Brush your teeth, f..., go to the dentist often.
2. You don’t want to get m... fillings like I’ve had to.
3. They only give you t... the older you get.
4. I had a big filling that had a very tiny s... of tooth on the outside of it to try and r... as much of my tooth as it could.
5. I felt with my tongue and a piece of my tooth had just s... off the filling.
6. My whole tooth was e...

Interesting vocabulary

Take a look at the words and phrases used in this clip.

• a dental filling - The artificial substance put into holes in teeth to repair them.
• to floss - to clean between your teeth using dental floss acc.
  Watch this clip to hear ‘floss’ used by a native speaker.

• massive - very big
  e.g. Wyatt is a massive dog.
• a sliver - a very small, thin piece of something, usually broken off something larger, e.g. Just a sliver of cake for me, please - I shouldn’t really be having any.
  In this clip, Joey asks Monica to cut him a sliver of pie. Play the video at 3:48.

• to retain - to keep or continue to have something, e.g. He managed to retain his dignity throughout the performance.
  - If a substance retains something, such as heat or water, it continues to hold or contain it, e.g. The sea retains the sun’s warmth longer than the land.
• to slide off - to slip along the surface of something and fall off, e.g. All of the toppings slid off my ice cream sundae before I could take a single bite.
• exposed - not covered, able to be seen, e.g. He left some exposed wires that should be covered up.

Definitions and examples - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Conversation

Answer those questions and don’t forget to use new words you’ve learnt!

1. Why was that day the roughest in his life?
2. How does Seán recommend you to take care of your teeth?
3. How do you take care of your teeth?
4. What did Seán have to do because of the tooth incident?
5. When you eat a pie with your favourite filling do you cut yourself just a sliver or do you get a massive slice?
6. What can companies do to retain their employees?

Answer key

Further practice

Check out Jackscepticeye’s YouTube channel! If you’re fond of video games, his videos will definitely interest you. Every time I listen to Seán, I learn a few new words. Grab a beer, a notepad and a pencil, and go watch more videos!