| preventive | 1. Going before; preceding. "Any previous counsel or preventive understanding." (Cudworth) 2. Tending to defeat or hinder; obviating; preventing the access of; as, a medicine preventive of disease. "Physic is either curative or preventive." (Sir T. Browne) Preventive service, the duty performed by the armed police in guarding the coast against smuggling. Origin: Cf. F. Preventif. That which prevents, hinders, or obstructs; that which intercepts access; in medicine, something to prevent disease; a prophylactic. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| preventive dentistry | The branch of dentistry concerned with the prevention of disease and the maintenance and promotion of oral health. (12 Dec 1998) |
| preventive dose | The smallest amount of any substance that will prevent occurrence of symptoms of a disease or the consequences of a lack of a particular factor in the diet. (05 Mar 2000) |
| preventive health services | Services designed for promotion of health and prevention of disease. (12 Dec 1998) |
| preventive medicine | Medicine designed to avert and avoid disease. Screening for hypertension and treating it before it causes disease is good preventive medicine. Preventive medicine is a proactive approach. (12 Dec 1998) |
| preventive psychiatry | A discipline concerned with the prevention of mental illness and the promotion of mental health. (12 Dec 1998) |
| preventive treatment | The institution of measures designed to protect a person from an attack of a disease to which he has been, or is liable to be exposed. Synonym: preventive treatment. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Buck's extension | Apparatus for applying longitudinal skin traction on the leg through contact between the skin and adhesive tape; friction between the tape and skin permits application of force, which is applied through a cord over a pulley, suspending a weight; elevation of the foot of the bed allows the body to act as a counterweight. Synonym: Buck's traction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| paraplegia in extension | Paralysis of the legs, maintained in an extended position by hypertonic extensor muscles. (05 Mar 2000) |
| ridge extension | An intraoral surgical operation for deepening the labial, buccal, and/or lingual sulci; it is performed to increase the intraoral height of the alveolar ridge in order to assist denture retention. (05 Mar 2000) |
| crossed extension reflex | Extension of the contralateral hind limb when the paw of an animal is painfully stimulated or the central cut end of an afferent nerve, e.g., the peroneal, is stimulated; sometimes occurs in humans upon tapping the skin. (05 Mar 2000) |
| primer extension | A technique for determining the 5'-untranslated region of a specific mRNA molecule. Uses an oligonucleotide complementary to the known RNA sequence as a primer for cDNA synthesis via reverse transcriptase. (05 Mar 2000) |
| skeletal extension | Traction pull on a bone structure mediated through pin or wire inserted into the bone to reduce a fracture of long bones. Synonym: skeletal extension. (05 Mar 2000) |
| nail extension | An obsolete method of extension, by a weight on a nail or pin in the distal fragment of a fracture. (05 Mar 2000) |
| extension | 1. <orthopaedics> The movement by which the two elements of any jointed part are drawn away from each other. 2. <anatomy> A movement which brings the members of a limb into or toward a straight relation. Origin: L. Extensio (18 Nov 1997) |