Abscess  A localized collection of purulence in a cavity formed by disintegration of tissues.

Abutment  The part of an implant above the neck that provides support for a fixed, fixed-detachable, or removable dental prosthesis.

Adhesion  The sticking together of dissimilar materials.

Adnexa (sing., adnexus)  Adjunct parts or structures adjacent to a tooth or other structure.

Allograft  See Alloplast.

Alloplast  A relatively inert, synthetic biomaterial, generally metal, ceramic, or a polymeric material.

Alloys  Strong, relatively ductile substances that provide electropositive ions to a corrosive environment and can be polished to a high luster; characterized by metallic atomic bonding; most often used for surgical implants because of a combination of favorable properties and long-term use in the construction of surgical implants, primarily titanium-, cobalt-, or iron-based systems.

Alterable blade implant  A blade type of implant that can be changed and reshaped to meet clinical requirements.

Aluminum oxide (alpha single crystal)  An inert, highly biocompatible, strong ceramic material used in the fabrication of endosseous implants.

Aluminum oxide (polycrystal)  A fused aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) biocompatible material.

Alveolar  Pertaining to an alveolus.

Alveolar crest  The most coronal part of the alveolar bone.

Alveolar process  The part of the maxillae or mandible that forms the dental arch and serves as a bony investment for the teeth.

Alveolar ridge  The bony ridge of the maxillae or mandible that contains the alveoli (sockets of the teeth); the remainder of the alveolar process after the teeth have been removed.

Alveolar mucosa  The mucous membrane covering the basal part of the alveolar process and continuing without demarcation into the vestibular fornix and the floor of the mouth. It is loosely attached to the periosteum and is movable.

Alveoloplasty  Conservative contouring of the alveolar process to achieve an acceptable contour.

Ambulate  To move about, walk.

Anastomosis  Communication between vessels by collateral channels.

Anchor  An endosteal metal implant in the shape of a ship’s anchor.

Anesthesia  Absence of sensation to stimuli.

Anneal  To heat and then cool slowly to prevent brittleness.

Anterior nasal spine  See Nasal spine.

Anteromedially  Forward and toward the midline.

Antrum  A cavity or chamber within the maxillary bone.

Arc  A bowlike, curved line.

Areolar  Pertaining to the areolae; any minute space or interstice in a tissue; loose mucosa adjacent to alveolar mucosa.

Armamentarium  The total store of available resources; the equipment, such as instruments, drugs, and other items, used in a technique.

Articulation (artificial)  The use of a mechanical device that simulates the movements of the temporomandibular joint, allowing orientation of casts in a manner duplicating or simulating various positions or movements of the patient.

Asepsis  Prevention of contact with microorganisms; the state of the surgical field for implant surgery.

Atrophy  A reduction in the size of the ridge because of resorption of the bone.

Attached gingiva  The portion of the gingiva extending from the marginal gingiva to the alveolar mucosa; the attached gingiva is fairly dense and tightly bound down to the underlying periosteum, tooth, and bone.

Attachment  A mechanical device for the fixation, retention, and stabilization of a dental prosthesis.

Auger  A tool for boring a hole.

Augmentation  The placement of autogenous or alloplastic materials to correct bony insufficiencies.

Autogenous  Self-generated.

Autograft  A graft taken from one part of the patient’s body and transplanted to another part.

Available bone  The amount and quality of residual bone accessible for implantation.

Avascular  Without blood.

Bacteremia  The presence of bacteria in the blood.

Bacteriostatic  The ability to inhibit or retard the growth or multiplication of bacteria without actually destroying them.

Biodegradable  Susceptible to degradation by biologic processes.

Biointegration  Establishment of a contact without interposition of nonbony tissue between an implant’s surface coating and host-remodeled bone, forming a biochemical bond at the light microscopic level.

Biomaterial  A relatively inert, naturally occurring or manufactured material that can be implanted in or used to interface with living tissues or biologic fluids without causing untoward reactions in those tissues or fluids; it can be used to fabricate devices designed to replace body parts or functions.

Blade (implant)  A thin, wedge-shaped metal implant that is placed in bone to provide an abutment (see Metal plate implants.)

Blanching  To become white or pale.

Block form  Any large, solid piece; bulk.

Bone  The material comprising the skeleton of most vertebrate animals; the tissue that makes up bones.

Bone, alveolar  The specialized bone structure that contains the alveoli or sockets of the teeth and supports the teeth.

Bone, basal  The part of the mandible and maxillae from which the alveolar process develops.

Bone, bundle  The bone that forms the immediate attachment of the numerous bundles of collagen fibers incorporated into bone.

Bone, cancellous (also called spongiosa, spongy bone, supporting bone, medullary bone, trabecular bone)  The bone that forms a trabecular network, surrounds marrow spaces that may contain either fatty or hematopoietic tissue, lies subjacent to the cortical bone, and makes up the main portion (bulk) of a bone.

Bone, compact  Hard, dense bone that constitutes the outer, cortical layer and consists of an infinite variety of periosteal bone, endosteal bone, and haversian systems.

Bone curettage  The use of hand instruments to move medullary bone gently to create an implant receptor site or to remove diseased intraosseous tissue.

Bovine  Of or like an ox or a cow.

Brookdale bar  A one-piece, continuous mesostructure bar design for use with subperiosteal implants.

Buried  An implant that has been placed below the soft tissue and is not in function.

Buttressed  Supported or reinforced.

CAD/CAM  Computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing; milled by computer control.

Calibrate  To correct the gradations of an instrument.

Cancellous bone  See Bone, cancellous.

Carbons  Vitreous (polycrystalline or glassy) or pyrolytic graphitic structures of relatively hard, inert, and stable compounds that conduct thermal and electrical energy; characterized by ionic and van der Waals–type atomic bonding; primarily carbon or carbon-silicon compounds; once used in endosseous dental implant systems and as an implant coating.

Caveat  A warning.

Cellulitis  Purulent inflammation of loose connective tissue.

Centric  Pertaining to or situated at the center.

Centric occlusion  Maximum intercuspation of the teeth.

Centric relationship  The most posterior relationship of the mandible to the maxilla when the condyles are in their most posterior positions in the glenoid fossa.

Ceramics  Compounds of a metal and oxygen that form chemically and biochemically stable substances that are strong, hard, brittle, and inert nonconductors of thermal and electrical energy; characterized by ionic bonding.

Cervix  The neck of the implant; connects the infrastructure to the abutment.

Cessation  A ceasing; stop; pause.

Circummandibular  Around the mandible.

Circumosseous  Around the bone.

Circumzygomatic  Around the zygoma.

Coagulate  To cause to clot.

Coagulum  The clot that closes the gap made in a vessel or between the wound margins.

Coaptation  To approximate the edges of a wound.

Coated  An outer covering; a layer of some substance over a surface.

Coherent  Sticking together of the same material; having cohesion.

Cold-weld  A frictional fit or press-fit.

Collate  To put into proper order.

Compliant  Yielding, submissive.

Connecting bar  A fixed bar that connects two or more permucosal extensions; in the case of the ramus frame or subperiosteal implant, it can be an integral part of the substructure.

Connective tissue  The binding and supportive tissue of the body; it is composed of fibroblasts, primitive mesenchymal cells, collagen fibers, and elastic fibers, with associated blood and lymphatic vessels, nerve fibers, and other components.

Contralateral  The opposite side.

Conventional blade implant  A one-stage implant design that does not involve buried healing.

Conversion appliance  A temporary, fixed-detachable prosthesis.

Cornua  A horn.

Corrosion (biomaterials)  The loss of the elemental constituents of metals to the adjacent environment. Polymers undergo biodegradation as a result of preferential leaching of lower molecular weight fractions and polymeric chain breakdown by enzymatic cleavage and/or hydration and/or oxidation-reduction processes. The same types of processes affect carbons (conductors) and ceramics (nonconductors), although to a lesser degree.

Cortical bone  A peripheral layer of compact osseous tissue; the average thickness of the cortex of alveolar bone is 2 mm (also see Bone, compact.)

Counterbore  The slight enlargement at the superior aspect of the osteotomy that allows the next gradual enlargement to take place.

Countersink  To enlarge the top part so that it can accept the head or cervix.

Countertorque  The force used to act against or in the opposite direction from the rotating motion being produced.

Crevicular  Referring to the gingival crevice.

Crossbite  Malocclusion in which the mandibular teeth are in buccal version to the maxillary teeth.

Cross-sectional slice  A vertical computed tomography (CT) scan slice.

Cruciform  Shaped like a cross.

Custom-cast blade implant  An implant designed and made to the unique specifications of the patient’s available bone.

Cyst  Any closed, epithelial-lined cavity or sac, usually containing liquid or semisolid material.

Debridement  The removal of foreign material and contaminated or devitalized tissue from or adjacent to a traumatic or infected lesion until surrounding healthy tissue is exposed.

Defatting  To remove the fat from the surface of a metal.

Deglove  To expose the bone by dissecting and reflecting all soft tissue.

Degreaser  A chemical used to remove organic contaminants from the surfaces of an implant.

Dehiscence  A splitting open of or break in the epithelium covering an implant, leaving an isolated area of the implant or of bone exposed to the oral cavity. Mandibular dehiscence is exposure of the inferior alveolar nerve as a result of extreme resorption of the mandible, to the point that the roof of the mandibular canal is no longer covered with bone, leaving only soft tissue separating the contents of the canal from the oral cavity.

Dehydration  Removal of water from a substance; excessive loss of water.

Delaminate  To remove a layer.

Demarcated  Limits or boundaries that are separate and well marked.

Demineralize  To remove the mineral content.

Dental implant  A biocompatible, biofunctional permucosal device that is placed on or within the bone associated with the oral cavity to provide support for fixed or removable prostheses.

Dentoalveolar  Pertaining to a tooth and its alveolus.

Depassivation  The breaking down of metallic oxide when local conditions produce an acidic environment at the metallic interface.

Disclosing agent (or solution)  A dye that allows visualization of dental plaque through staining with a selective medium.

Dissection  The act of cutting apart and disclosing the individual tissues; the separation of tissues in surgical procedures.

Dorsum  The posterior or superior surface of a body part.

Dysesthesia  A disturbance in or impairment of sensory nerve transmission.

Ecchymosis  A hemorrhagic area of the skin or a mucous membrane that forms a flat, rounded, blue, or purplish patch.

Edema  An abnormal accumulation of fluid in intercellular spaces of the body.

Elastomeric  Rubberlike.

Electrocoagulation  The use of an electrical current to coagulate tissue.

Endodontic endosteal implant  A smooth and/or threaded pin implant that extends through the root canal of a tooth into periapical bone, to stabilize a mobile tooth.

Endodontic stabilizer implant  See Endodontic endosteal implant.

Endosteal (endosseous)  Occurring or located within a bone.

Endosteal (endosseous) implant  A device placed within alveolar and/or basal bone.

Epithelial attachment  The continuation of the sulcular epithelium that is joined to the tooth or implant structure and is located at the base of the sulcus, or pocket.

Epithelial cuff, implant  The band of tissue that is constricted around an implant’s cervix.

Epithelium  The outer layer covering the underlying connective tissue stroma.

Epithelium, gingival  A stratified squamous epithelium consisting of a basal layer; when it comprises the attached gingiva, it is keratinized or parakeratinized.

Epithelium, sulcular  The stratified squamous epithelium that forms the covering of the soft tissue wall of the gingival sulcus, or crevice.

Evert  To turn inside out; to turn outward.

Exploratory surgery  Surgery performed for the purpose of examination, study, or diagnosis.

Exteriorization  To cause to be on the outside.

External oblique ridge  A smooth ridge on the buccal surface of the body of the mandible that extends from the anterior border of the ramus, with diminishing prominence, downward and forward to the region of the mental foramen. This ridge changes very little in size and direction throughout life and is an important landmark in the design of a subperiosteal implant.

Exudate  A fluid with a high protein content that has escaped from blood vessels and has been deposited in tissues as a result of inflammation; pus.

Fenestrations  Any windowlike openings.

Fibro-osteal (fibro-osseous) integration  See Fibrous integration.

Fibrosis  The formation of fibrous tissue.

Fibrous  Composed of or containing fibers.

Fibrous integration  Interposition of healthy, dense, collagenous ligament tissue between implant and bone that transmits loads from the implant to the bone.

First-stage surgery  The preparatory stage for an implant procedure. For subperiosteal implants, the surgical bone impression and bone bite, which are done to construct the implant. For endosteal implants, the placement of the implant, which is to be submerged for a healing period before it is put into function.

Fistula  An abnormal tract connecting two body cavities or organs or leading from a pathologic or natural internal cavity to the surface.

Fixed bridge  A prosthetic dental appliance that replaces lost teeth; it is supported and held in position by attachments to natural teeth and/or implants in a nonremovable manner.

Fixed-detachable  A fixed bridge that can be removed by the practitioner but not by the patient.

Follicle  A sac or pouchlike depression or cavity.

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