Made less relaxed by dental hygienist removing inlays (9)
I believe the answer is:
tightened
'made less' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to change as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'relaxed by dental hygienist removing inlays' is the wordplay.
'relaxed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'removing' suggests deleting specific letters.
'dental' after 'hygienist' is 'hygienistdental'.
'hygienistdental' with 'inlays' taken away is 'hgeitdent'.
'hgeitdent' is an anagram of 'TIGHTENED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tightened that I've seen before include "screwed up?" , "Tensed" , "Made less relaxed" , "Became more tense" .)