Fixed prosthodontics in dental practice

  • M. O'Sullivan
UK: Quintessence price £28, pp 162 ISBN 1850970955 | ISBN: 1-850-97095-5

This compact, well-illustrated text weighs in at fewer than 200 pages. It is a multi-author work but, unlike many books of this nature, remains cohesive with a uniform style throughout. This book covers a specific area but is designed to sit within a series of similar texts dealing with other aspects of dental practice, and as such it has a generic cover style.

The book begins with a useful preface setting out the aims and objectives, which in my opinion the authors go on to meet. The order of the chapters follows the usual clinical sequence in the provision of fixed prostheses and rightly begins with the important topic of patient assessment and treatment options. The reader is then taken in turn through the remaining stages culminating in factors influencing the choice and use of luting cements. The book concludes with two summary chapters on resin-bonded restorations, and the restoration of non-vital teeth. These are by necessity brief, and as such are only able to deal with the basic aspects of the subject matter. However, they will be useful to those who wish to be brought up to date with current accepted practice.

Rightly, this book does not attempt to cover fixed prosthodontics in relation to implantology, and this is dealt with by other volumes in the series.

It would of course be extremely rare to read a text with which the reviewer was in complete agreement. As always there are aspects of the authors' approaches to particular clinical situations which are likely to stimulate debate and disagreement, and others that require more robust evidence to back up particular statements. This surely will always be the case with clinical dentistry in general and fixed prosthodontics in particular.

In summary this book is a welcome addition to the field, easy to read and containing much sensible and practical advice. I am sure that it will prove popular with senior students and experienced dental practitioners who have an interest in fixed prosthodontics, and who wish to acquaint themselves with contemporary practice in this field.