The art and science of minimal intervention dentistry and atraumatic restorative treatment

  • Jo E. Frencken
Stephen Hancocks Publishing; 2018 price £73.99 pp. 220 ISBN: 9780956566850 | ISBN: 978-0-9565-6685-0

This new hardback book is written by the world authority on atraumatic restorative treatment (ART), Jo Frencken. It aims to take the reader through his personal journey from the origins, through to the development of this minimally invasive operative technique for caries management, initially primed for use in those environments without access to the ideal dental surgery clinical set-up.

The 220-page book is divided into 11 chapters, which are slightly confusingly listed numerically in the contents but not throughout the book, making it a little more difficult to navigate the text. The first four provide a summary of the evidence-based current knowledge of the caries process affecting enamel and dentine, as well as the contemporary approaches to lesion management, both non-operative as well as minimally invasive operative. It was my personal pleasure to work with Jo on the International Caries Consensus Collaboration in 2015, and in this book Jo regularly cites our publications from that collaboration to help the reader appreciate the reasoning behind the recommendations. Indeed, as an aside, Jo also collaborated on several of the papers in the MI-themed BDJ issue in August 2017 (Vol 223, issue 3). The book features well-written, readable commentaries on the different aspects of non-operative preventive regimes to manage the early signs of this most prevalent of bacterially-mediated, non-communicable diseases affecting humankind. Chapter 4 provides a summary of the adhesive bio-interactive materials that could and should be used to manage carious lesions.

The remaining seven chapters follow with meticulous detail of the principles, evolution and the precise methodology of ART. This is highly relevant as there are many authors who have over the years gradually modified the ART technique to suit different clinical scenarios. It is good to get the definitive account from the head of the team of originators.

Jo has written a book that reads as if he is talking personally to you about MI dentistry and ART. This style of writing has much to commend it. In a world where attention spans are reducing and there is an increasing demand for 'bite size' snippets/brief summaries of online information, it is refreshing to pick up a clinical academic textbook that you want to keep reading and not just dip in and out of.

Jo has acknowledged many of his international colleagues who have not only helped with the global development of ART, but also specifically with this book, especially the illustrations.

This text will appeal to all members of the oral healthcare team involved with minimum intervention oral healthcare delivery: students, qualified practitioners and dental therapists.