Dental statistics made easy, 2nd edition

  • N. Smeeton
Radcliffe Publishing price £24.99; pp 180 ISBN 9781846199738 | ISBN: 978-1-8461-9973-8

The explosion of information available on the internet, combined with new dental products on the market and increasing interest from the general public, has led to greater discussions of treatment options with the modern day patient. A firm understanding of statistics allows clinicians to quickly assess the quality of evidence read on the internet and in papers. When one hears the word 'statistics', you may think of endless numbers, algebra and confusing formulae, however, this impressive textbook, written for dental students and practitioners, does not focus on number crunching. Instead it successfully discusses the theory behind the statistics and how this relates directly to modern day dental practice.

The layout of the text is simple, clear and easy to understand. The informal style used by the author allows the reader to quickly and concisely generate an excellent understanding of basic statistics. The key points are boxed within the sections to reinforce knowledge described in the text. Tables and graphs are kept to a minimum, with the author placing a greater emphasis on dental examples and their relationship with statistics. This makes the book much more relevant for practitioners and clearly shows the importance of statistics in dentistry. The chapters end with questions and answers (of varying difficulties!), perfect for undergraduates. The second edition fantastically updates the references to dental journals at the end of each chapter. These not only include statistical papers, but also references to 'locating subject-specific literature for dental research'.

The initial chapters guide the reader through the details of planning a study and how a study is generated. This follows perfectly on to the types of studies used in dentistry with particular emphasis on randomised control trials. This edition has greatly updated the later chapters, which concentrate on more statistical specifics such as confidence intervals, comparing two means, P-values, chi-squared test and many more. The core emphasis of statistics in dentistry rather than formulae and calculations ensures that the reader appreciates the relevance of the text to daily practice life.

In summary, this excellent text could be renamed 'dental statistics made easy, enjoyable and relevant'! Using examples of how statistics relates to dentistry, rather than numbers and algebra, this book is perfect for understanding essential statistics in modern day evidence-based dentistry.