Enhance your puzzle-solving skills with our challenging cryptic crossword, puzzle number 30,131. Dive deep into clues brimming with wordplay and nuance, and uncover the answers to a series of cunningly crafted questions.
Across
1. Brute has wiped mouth on floor. (6 letters)
4. Cut top off crown, not probing cavity from the back. (4, 4 letters)
9. Pith in decay, sign – it’s this? (6 letters)
10. Food’s black I see, scraped back in house. (8 letters)
11. Dentist’s chair, where gas supplied in the US. (7, 7 letters)
13. Show girl disheartened, bandaged by loose sheet – what would nitrous oxide have given her? (3, 7 letters)
14. Send erotic message with kiss where flossing teeth? (4 letters)
16. Pivot end of utensil into chopper. (4 letters)
18. Contemporary guided by dental implant? (10 letters)
21. Where dentist looks miserable. (4, 2, 3, 5 letters)
23. Canine eats and eats. (4-4 letters)
24. Nippy dental ability? (6 letters)
25. Something worn, in under three seconds chewed up. (8 letters)
26. Anaesthetic around root of canine – and incisor? (6 letters)
Down
1. Hair clip. (4 letters)
2. Not everyone’s cup of tea in pot? (7 letters)
3. Love French poet briefly covered. (8 letters)
5. Cash for moving Whistler held up by wonky fastener. (8, 3 letters)
6. Nothing about swap, initially, question exchange. (6 letters)
7. Debauchee gripping metal drill. (7 letters)
8. In having wrong date below space towards the top, numbered for reference. (9 letters)
12. Artless goon zonked, extraction causing little discomfort then? (2, 5, 4 letters)
13. Mushy crud bottled by baby feeders, little things activated when emotional? (4, 5 letters)
15. One carrying on is supporter of working rights. (8 letters)
17. Very bad, the score. (3-4 letters)
19. Baltic, welcome this when shivering. (7 letters)
20. Nipper, a little chap in cerise. (6 letters)
22. Substance taking dental impression, pattern scaled up. (4 letters)
Reporting based on coverage first published by theguardian.com.