# dentistry
## English
### Etymology

From dentist +‎ -ry.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈdɛntɪstɹi/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

dentistry (usually uncountable, plural dentistries)
* (uncountable) The field of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of conditions of the teeth and oral cavity.
** 1905, Australian journal of dentistry, volume 9, Australian Dental Association, page 184:Some provision should be made for the truly suffering poor, and also for our present students of dentistry to learn something about dental surgery before commencing a profession which has almost become a science.
** 1957, West's Wisconsin statutes annotated, West Publishing Company:A corporation may not operate a dentistry office unless all of its stockholders are licensed to practice dentistry.
** 1997, P.B. Waite, The Lives of Dalhousie University, volume II: 1925-198, page 24:He was born near Middleton in 1853, graduated from Mount Allison, and took his dentistry degree at Philadelphia in 1878.
** 2000, James Wynbrandt, The excruciating history of dentistry, page 81:Wig-workers were not the only tradesmen who practiced dentistry on the side, or "assumed the role" of dentist, as the arrival of a thespian dentist from London attests in this ad from Boston's Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser
* (uncountable) Operations performed on teeth and adjoining areas such as drilling, filling cavities, and placing crowns and bridges.
** 2009, Siobhain Ryan, “Poor access leads to DIY dentistry: dental checks”, in The Australian, sourced from Dow Jones Newswires:POOR Australians are resorting to do-it-yourself dentistry, including filing their own teeth and attempting their own extractions, because of lengthy queues for public dental services.
** 2011, Gregory J. Tarantola, Clinical Cases in Restorative and Reconstructive Dentistry, →ISBN:This patient is an out-of-town physician who had to wait until retirement to complete his dentistry. He had holding pattern type dentistry done to get him by.
* (countable) A dental surgery, an operation on the teeth.
** 1908, in the report of the Second International Congress on School Hygiene, volume 2, page 516:
    Dr. Landsberg, of Posen, states that when children's teeth are put in order by means of school dentistries, anaemia, one of the most frequent school diseases, will be greatly diminished.
** 2004, Gene Witiak, True Confessions of a Veterinarian: An Unconditional Love Story, page 83:I speak now only of your pet's bad breath. Dentistries will specifically improve the oral health of the pet as well as its overall health in the long term.
* (countable) A place where dental operations are performed. (Not as common as "dentist's office". Compare surgery.)
** 1867, Macmillan's Magazine, volume 16, page 464:They are very fond of sweet things; and the ladies especially crowd the “candystores,” which are not less numerous than the dentistries—with which business they are intimately connected.
** 1918, Edward Bernard Benjamin, The larger liberalism, page 172:The author could dilate at great length on the possibilities in plant groceries, restaurants, and dentistries.
** 2003, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: First Review, →ISBN:As a first step, the law with be amended to prepare for the privatization of pharmacies and dentistries by end-2003.

#### Quotations

* 2000, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z (Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Joy Dorothy Harvey), page 1271:
    Lucy specialized in the dentistry of women and children.
* 2011, Phyllis J. Perry, Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Colorado History, page 75:
    In 1873 Holliday moved to Dallas, Texas, and opened a dentist's office there. At this time he began to gamble heavily and soon found gambling more lucrative than his dentistry.
* For more quotations using this term, see Citations:dentistry.

#### Derived terms

* animal dentistry
* cosmetic dentistry
* predentistry
* teledentistry

#### Translations
### See also

* Appendix:Glossary of dental terms