Operative Dentistry and Prosthodontic Terminology
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Operative (or restorative) dentistry is a specialty in dentistry and oral surgery that is concerned with the art and science of the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of defects of teeth that do not require prosthodontic crowns for correction.
Prosthodontics (or dental prosthetics or prosthetic dentistry) is a speciality in dentistry and oral surgery that is concerned with the provision of suitable substitutes for the clinical crown of teeth or for one or more missing or lost teeth and their associated parts. Maxillofacial prosthetics is considered a subspecialty of prosthodontics, involving palatal obturators and maxillofacial prostheses to replace resected or lost tissues.
Odontoplasty (ODY):
Surgical contouring of the tooth surface
Defect preparation (DP):
Removal of dental hard tissue to establish in a tooth the biomechanically acceptable form necessary to receive and retain a defect restoration
Restoration (R):
Anything that replaces lost tooth structure, teeth or oral tissues, including fillings, inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns, bridges, implants, dentures and obturators
Defect restoration:
Filling made of amalgam (R/A), glass ionomer (R/I), composite (R/C) or compomer (R/CP) within a prepared defect
Bridge (BRI):
Fixed partial denture used to replace a missing or lost tooth by joining permanently to adjacent teeth or implants
Crown preparation (CR/P):
Removal of enamel or enamel and dentin to establish on a tooth the biomechanically acceptable form necessary to receive and retain a prosthodontic crown
Temporary crown (CR/T):
Provisional, short-term cap made of resin to protect a prepared crown until cementation of a prosthodontic crown
Full crown:
Prosthodontic crown made of metal (CR/M), resin (CR/R), ceramic (CR/C) or porcelain fused to metal (CR/PFM) that covers the tip and all sides of a prepared crown
Partial crown:
Prosthodontic crown (e.g., three-quarter crown) made of metal (CR/M/P), resin (CR/R/P), ceramic (CR/C/P) or porcelain fused to metal (CR/PFM/P) that covers part of a prepared crown
Implant (IMP):
Titanium rod-shaped endosseous device to support intraoral prosthetics that resemble a tooth or group of teeth to replace one or more missing or lost teeth
Crown reduction (CR/XP):
Partial removal of tooth substance to reduce the height or an abnormal extension of the clinical crown
Crown amputation (CR/A):
Total removal of clinical crown substance
Post and core (PCB):
Placing a post into the root canal of a tooth that had root canal therapy and build-up of a core made of filling material around the portion of post that extends out from the pulp cavity