In the space of one year, dentist loses final grains of individuality (8)
I believe the answer is:
identity
'individuality' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'in the space of one year dentist loses final grains' 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 located in the answer.
'space' could be 'en' (in printing, a space as wide as a letter 'n') and 'en' is located in the answer.
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is found in the answer.
'year' could be 'y' and 'y' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dit' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for identity that I've seen before include "Distinct personality of an individual" , "it may precede crisis" , "Individuality, personality" , "papers" , "Uniqueness" .)