Month: January 2020

  • Collagen

    A molecule characterized by a triple helical structure and a high content of glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline. It is the major constituent of connective tissue fibers, the organic matrix of bone, dentin, cementum, and basal laminas. Collagen is synthesized by fibroblasts, chondroblasts, osteoblasts, and odontoblasts. Several types are found in the human body. Type 1…

  • Col

    Taken from a geography term meaning the pass or depression between two mountains; in dentistry, it refers to the gingival depression between the teeth that connects the facial and lingual papillae. It follows the shape of the interproximal contact in healthy gingiva. The nonkeratinized, depressed gingival tissue that lies between adjacent teeth; it extends labiolingually…

  • Cohort study

    Study in which subjects who presently have a certain condition and/or receive a particular treatment are followed over time and compared with another group who are not affected by the condition under investigation. Systematic follow-up of a group of people for a defined period of time or until a specified event also known as longitudinal…

  • Cohesion

    The act or state of sticking together tightly. The force whereby molecules of matter adhere to one another; the attraction of aggregation. Molecular attraction by which the particles of a body are united throughout their mass. Friction between molecules that causes them to adhere to an object submerged in the water.  

  • Coccobacillus

    Coccobacillus

    A descriptive term of bacterial cell morphology referring to a structure intermediate in shape between a true coccus and a bacillus (rod). A rod-shaped bacterium (bacillus) that is so small that it resembles a spherical bacterium (coccus). Examples of such bacteria are Bacteroides and Brucella.  

  • Coating

    Abutment: Surface treatment for an abutment to alter its optical transmission characteristics. A substance applied to all or a portion of the dental implant. A close, dense thin layer formed on the surface of an organ either by disintegration of part of that organ or by an exudate.  

  • Coaptation

    Proper alignment of the displaced edges of a wound or the ends of a fractured bone. The adjustment of separate parts to each other, as the edges of fractures.  

  • Coagulum

    A clot or a coagulated mass. A mass of coagulated matter, such as that formed when blood clots. A coagulated mass, clot, or precipitate.  

  • Coagulation

    The process of changing liquid to solid, especially of blood; clotting. In colloid chemistry, the solidification of a sol into a gelatinous mass; an alteration of a disperse phase or of a dissolved solid which causes the separation of the system into a liquid phase and an insoluble mass called the clot or curd. Coagulation…

  • Co‐adapted

    In dentistry, the proper realignment of displaced parts back to their original position, as in the fractured incisal edge of a central incisor that may be coadapted and bonded back to its original position.