Master Dentistry 1 - Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Radiology, Pathology and Oral Medicine

Master Dentistry 1 - Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Radiology, Pathology and Oral Medicine

• P. Coulthard,
• K. Horner,
• P. Sloan &
• E. Theaker

London: Churchill Livingstone, 2003 price £21.99, pp267 ISBN 0443070830 | ISBN: 0-443-07083-0

This book forms the first volume of a series of books published by Churchill Livingstone. The preface states that it is intended for clinical students, both undergraduate and postgraduate as an aide to understanding clinical dentistry and it is clear that it is particularly targeted at students approaching examinations.

Four major disciplines of dentistry are encompassed in a text of only 249 pages, which means that this book is not setting out to replace existing textbooks for initial attainment of knowledge, but is designed to complement them and to enable the student to remind themselves of some of the key principles, and to assess their knowledge; readers should note this point. The four authors represent the disciplines of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Oral Medicine, and they have worked together to ensure that the content does not view these disciplines as separate in the context of clinical dentistry, but as overlapping in relation to the provision of care for patients.

There are 15 chapters which are each broadly divided into the following sections:

• 1 An overview which clarifies what the chapter will cover.

• 2 Clear itemised sections on different aspects of the chapter's topic.

• 3 Self-assessment questions

• 4 Self-assessment answers.

Each section starts with brief but clear 'Learning objectives' which can be used as a checklist for covering the required topics. In addition to this there are numerous 'Clinical boxes' which contain bullet points or itemised lists of what to do in relation to the featured topic. The text is supported by illustrations where appropriate; many of them line drawings, clinical images or radiographs. Although black and white is clearly the preferred choice for radiographic images, the clinical images, especially reproductions of histological slides, lose out by the decision not to use some colour. This obviously has production cost implications, and was, presumably, a reasoned decision.

The self-assessment questions are broad in their coverage, and will be valuable to any student revising, and wishing to test their knowledge and understanding. Each group of questions starts with a series of Multiple choice questions, testing factual knowledge, generally followed by Case history questions. In addition to this there are some Viva questions and in some chapters essay questions. The answers are self-explanatory, and with regard to the essay questions are dealt with in the form of what would be expected from an essay plan.

There is no doubt that this book has a very broad coverage, and that, in itself, will be attractive to the student revising for exams. This textbook will not only be a valuable addition to dental school libraries, but at the price of £21.99 will also find itself on many an undergraduate and postgraduate student's bookshelf.