Pulp is the living center of a tooth, tucked safely beneath the harder layers.

In kid words

"Pulp is the soft, living middle of your tooth, where tiny nerves and blood vessels help your tooth feel things and stay healthy." Your child does not need more detail than that. It is simply the part of a tooth that is alive, tucked safely under the hard outside layers.

The parent version

Pulp is the soft tissue at the center of a tooth, holding the nerves, blood vessels and connective tissue that keep a tooth alive and able to sense things like temperature or pressure. It sits beneath the harder enamel and dentin layers, protected at the very core of the tooth, present in baby teeth and permanent teeth alike.

Pulp is also part of why a deep cavity is worth catching early rather than watching. Decay that stays shallow generally moves slowly, but a cavity that has worked its way close to the pulp can begin to affect the nerve inside, which is one reason a tooth might start feeling sensitive or sore. That is not something to puzzle out at home. Ask your pediatric dentist to look at any tooth that seems to be bothering your child.

Where you might hear it at our office

Pulp usually comes up once a cavity has gone deep enough to need more than a simple filling. Our restorative dentistry page walks through that fuller range of care, including the nerve treatments that calm and protect a tooth's pulp so the tooth itself gets to stay right where it is.

If another word from a visit is still a mystery, the rest of the Kids' Dental Dictionary is right here.

Related words

Words that often come up alongside pulp: dentin, pulpotomy, nerve treatment.