Prosthetic rehabilitation

  • G. Preti
UK: Quintessence price £91.00; pp 240 ISBN 9781850971665 | ISBN: 978-1-8509-7166-5

This hardback is a translation from the original Italian book with contributions from several authors and edited by Professor Emeritus Giulio Preti. The book is an attempt to showcase 25 years of collective knowledge and experience of the dental team from the University of Turin. They have adhered to two fundamental concepts in compiling this book: that of their teaching methodologies and emphasis on evidence based dentistry. Evidence of this is set out in the beginning of the book when they use weighting criteria for evaluating the dental literature that they have used as reference. However, many of the references are from journals in a foreign language.

The book is in nine concise chapters which summarise various aspects of oral rehabilitation from history, examination and diagnosis to eventual treatment options. Although the emphasis is on the group's philosophy of comprehensive care, the book is titled Prosthetic rehabilitation which may not do justice to the book.

There are some issues with inadequate proofreading and the message being lost in translation in the first chapter on internal medicine, but that should not detract the readers from the comprehensive coverage of the topic in this section. This is complemented by an excellent treatise on the oral manifestations of systemic conditions and its effect on prosthetic treatment. This will be of value to all dental practitioners and students.

A great deal of emphasis has been placed on the psychological dimensions of tooth loss, rehabilitation and TMD. There is a whole chapter devoted to the oral cavity as an ecosystem and its relevance to prosthetic treatment which is unique to a textbook of prosthodontics. Another novel addition in keeping with the multidisciplinary spirit of the book is the addition of a chapter on preprosthetic orthodontics. All the other aspects of restorative dentistry in oral rehabilitation are dealt with in an orderly and logical manner.

What sets this book apart from other texts is that the subject matter is supplemented by high quality clinical pictures and line diagrams making reading a satisfying and educational experience. Oral rehabilitation is a vast and complex subject and the authors have presented it as succinctly as possible.

To summarise, this textbook is a distillation of the wisdom and experience of the Turin group which is presented in an organised manner and is well illustrated with clinical pictures and line diagrams. This book is suitable for any clinician attempting to gain an insight into the complex field of multidisciplinary treatment modalities.