Almost damaging the end bit of a tooth (7)
I believe the answer is:
dentine
'bit of a tooth' is the definition.
('dentine' is part of 'tooth')
'almost damaging the end' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'end' is 'den' which is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ine' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dentine that I've seen before include "which forms tooth" , "Material in teeth" , "Tooth material" , "Substance of which teeth are mainly composed" , "bony material" .)