Osseointegrate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To become firmly joined with bone tissue so that an implant such as a dental or orthopedic device becomes permanently anchored in place
2. Of an implanted device, to grow directly into and fuse with surrounding living bone, creating a stable structural connection
3. To form a direct, stable bond between bone and a man-made implant so that the two function together as a single unit

Etymology: "Osseointegrate" is a modern technical coinage, built from "osseo-", a combining form from Latin "os" (genitive "ossis"), meaning "bone", and "integrate", from Latin "integrare", "to make whole or renew". Put together, the word describes a bone becoming fused into a whole with something placed against or within it, and it was made for that exact purpose rather than inherited from older speech. The sense it names is a medical one. It is used of the process by which living bone grows directly onto the surface of an implant, most famously a titanium dental or orthopaedic implant, so that the artificial piece becomes anchored by the bone itself rather than by cement or soft tissue. The Greek-derived element "osseo-" is the usual way English medicine signals bone, which is why the word sounds more like a classical scientific term than an everyday one.