An anterior cervical plating system having moveable plate segments to vary the overall length of the plate, moveable to allow andor cause intersegmental compression of vertebral bodies, and coupled together by a non-detachable fastener. A remote control operation section includes a remote controller shift lever. One of these bearings can be a conical bearing with conical rings and with rollers which are thermally and electrically insulating. One or more of the reference concepts that are similar to the at least one uncoded concept are identified.