Dental terminology in Spanish, for dentists and patients

Dental health is part of everybody’s lives, no matter where you live or travel. Basic dental terminology in Spanish may come in handy if you need to know how to name the parts of your mouth or how to describe a specific pain, or to understand your dentist’s requests.

In today’s post, we’ll cover all the Spanish dental vocab that you’d normally hear at a dentist’s office. We’ll start with the vocabulary for the different dental professionals you’ll meet there, along with some objects, places, and administrative words you’ll need there.

Then we’ll move on to different dental terminology in Spanish, broken down into several specific lists. We’ll start with terms we normally use to talk about the teeth and mouth, and then we’ll get a bit more technical with the names of dental problems, treatments, and procedures. Finally, we’ll wrap up today’s post with a list of the most common instructions you’re likely to hear from dentists in Spanish.

So without further ado, let’s dive into the world of Spanish for dentists and patients!

At the dentist’s office

In this section, we present vocabulary for the people, objects, and locations around the dentist’s office. Check out our general post for other common professions in Spanish.

Teeth and Mouth

Here we list the dental terminology in Spanish relating to the mouth. We saw a few of the common ones in our post on body parts in Spanish, whereas here we go into more detail than you’re perhaps even familiar with in English!

Dental Problems

Whether you are a dentist or a patient, you can refer to the following list of dental terminology in Spanish to effectively communicate about dental issues.

For dentists, it will help you explain diagnoses to your patients. And for patients, this vocabulary will enable you to better understand your dentist’s explanations and discussions about your oral health.

You can use the verb sentirse to describe how you feel. For describing your ailments beyond the mouth, check out our post on explaining medical health in Spanish.

Did you notice that the word for a tooth cavity in Spanish appears in the plural form, as la caries? That’s right! In Spanish, whether you are talking about a single cavity or multiple cavities, we still use the plural form caries! This is an interesting exception to our usual singular and plural rules in Spanish.

Dental Treatments and Procedures

After a diagnosis, dental treatment and procedures are the next steps. Check out the following list of Spanish dental terms related to some of the most common procedures and treatments.

Instructions for Patients

The following list of dental terminology in Spanish includes common phrases and verbs that dentists often use when communicating with their patients.

Note that all the command phrases we’ve included here are formal imperative orders. We cover the grammar rules for using the imperative mood with the formal pronoun usted in our post on formal commands in Spanish.

Conclusion

Whether you are in the dentistry business or you are a patient, we’re sure that today’s post on dental terminology in Spanish will come in handy.

From the dentist’s office to the names of different teeth in Spanish, from dental procedures to treatment names, to typical phrases a dentist may use in his everyday job, we’ve covered all the Spanish dental vocab you’re likely to need!