Technical terms about dental prostheses with A

Impression – an imprint of the rows of teeth, from which the working model is made in the laboratory. Increasingly replaced by the intraoral scanner. Intraoral scanner Functional impression

Abutment – the connecting piece between the implant and the crown. It is screwed into the implant and carries the visible restoration. Implant Superstructure

Adhesive bridge – a bridge bonded to the neighbouring teeth with thin wings instead of crowning them. It spares substance but only holds with small gaps. Bridge Abutment tooth

All-on-4 – a concept in which a whole jaw is restored with fixed prostheses on four implants, two of them placed at an angle. Implant Superstructure

Alveolar ridge – the wall of bone in which the tooth roots sit. After tooth loss it recedes – which is why an old denture eventually sits more loosely. Rebasing Relining

Articulator – a device in the laboratory that imitates the movements of the jaw. Without it the prosthesis fits the model but not the bite. Occlusion