Dentistry in Russia: Building Russian Vocabulary

The following bilingual Russian MiniLesson is meant to build your vocabulary by providing Russian phrases within English text. Hover over the bold Russian to reveal its English translation.

To prevent cavities, both Russian and Western dentists recommend that you come in for regular гигиеническая чистка зубовregular cleaning, sometimes called профессиональная чистка зубовprofessional cleaning. Some foreign visitors to Russian стоматологическая клиникаdentist offices Tooltip contentmay be surprised that the медсестра надевает маску пациентуnurse puts a mask on the patient before обдувка пескомsandblasting, the most common method to clean teeth in Russia. Before this process, the area will undergo обезболивание/анестезия с помощью геляanaesthetization (by means of a gel) as it can be uncomfortable for the patient. Some bleeding after the procedure is normal.

If you have зубная больa toothache, you will need to get лечение зубовdental treatment. A dentist office is most often known as a стоматологическая клиникаdental clinic in Russia. There are a variety of forms of them, from a государственная клиникаstate clinic which is generally known for бесплатные услугиfree services for Russian citizens to a частная клиникаprivate clinic which are more often associated with лечение по мировым стандартамtreatment according to international standards and usually for высокие ценыhigh prices.

Prior to лечениеtreatment, стоматологa dentist обследует зубыexamines (your) teeth to find the дуплоcavity, or any other problems, such as налетplaque or зубной каменьtartar. A больной зубpainful tooth will undergo обезболивание/анестезия с помощью уколаanaesthetization by means of injection. Once the участок зубаtooth area замораживаетсяis anaesthetized, the стоматологdentist can удалять нервextract the nerve and очищать кариозную полостьclean out the decaying cavity безболезненно для пациентаwith no pain for the patient.

While the стоматолог очищает зубную полостьdentist cleans out the tooth cavity, a медсестраnurse applies a вакуумная воздуходувкаsuction; literally a 'vacuum blast engine' to откачивание слюныpump out saliva.

As a rule, especially at state clinics, a временная пломбаtemporary filling is put into the cavity for a day or two, then она заменяется постоянной пломбойit is replaced with a permanent filling. After установка пломбыinstalling a filling, it is шлифуетсяpolished.

When a зубtooth is невозможно вылечитьimpossible to cure, it is удаляетсяextracted or вырываетсяpulled out, using зубные щипцыdental forceps.

Russians know a few ways to save money on dental services. For example, some Moscow residents go to Belarus and лечить зубыundergo teeth treatment there, since prices are at least three times lower. Others go to smaller Russian towns or стоят в очередиstand in line at a государственная клиникаstate clinic.