Damage surrounding short old tooth (5)
I believe the answer is:
molar
'tooth' is the definition.
(molar is a kind of tooth)
'damage surrounding short old' is the wordplay.
'damage' becomes 'mar' (marring is a kind of damaging).
'surrounding' indicates putting letters inside.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'old' with its last letter taken away is 'ol'.
'mar' placed around 'ol' is 'MOLAR'.
(Other definitions for molar that I've seen before include "Dealing with masses" , "part of the daily grind" , "Chewer and grinder" , "Type of tooth" , "that could be capped" .)