Depresses dentist, losing IT (5)
I believe the answer is:
dents
'depresses' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'dentist losing it' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dens' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dents that I've seen before include "reductions in size" , "Tends to create small depressions" , "Tends towards small depressions" , "Tends towards small depression" .)