A Colour Handbook of Oral Medicine

  • M.A.O. Lewis &
  • R.C.K. Jordan
London: Manson, 2004 price £29.95, pp176 ISBN 1840760338 | ISBN: 1-840-76033-8

This book aims to provide a clinician with a well illustrated text to aid the diagnosis and initial management of disorders relevant to oral medicine. I therefore assume the text is aimed at general dental practitioners.

An introductory chapter of the book provides information regarding the potential investigation of relevant disease. Seven further chapters each consider the disorders likely to give rise to a particular sign or symptom affecting the mouth.

The principal chapters all contain key points of diagnosis and list differential diagnoses of a given symptom or sign. Thereafter, the chapters discuss each disorder by providing short summaries of aetiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnosis and management. Clinicians will find many good examples of common disorders such as squamous cell carcinoma, oral lichen planus, erythema multiforme and primary herpetic gingivostomatitis, together with less common disorders such as linear IgA disease, white sponge naevus and dyskeratosis congenita.

A considerable number of colour images of relevant lesions are provided throughout. Without doubt, the strength of the text lies in these images — which are generally of a high quality and demonstrate pertinent lesions well — along with the succinct summaries provided of the clinical features of each disorder. Hence general dental practitioners are likely to gain useful and relevant clinical insight into the world of oral medicine. In addition, readers should be able to appreciate the spectrum of disease that may arise and its possible association with systemic disease.

There are some weaknesses in the text which may reflect the very rapid changes that occur in both medicine and oral medicine. For example, the treatment of oral dysplastic lesions should probably be more aggressive than stated, while the role of patch-testing in the diagnosis of lichenoid reaction remains questionable. Some of the other investigations and managements may be of limited benefit.

Not withstanding, this is a well written, well presented text that I am sure will be of interest, and clinical relevance, to general dental practitioners.