Manual of dental implants: a reference guide for diagnosis and treatment

Manual of dental implants: a reference guide for diagnosis and treatment

• D.P. Sarment &
• B. Peshman

USA: Lexi-Comp price $54.95, pp 101 ISBN 1591950619 | ISBN: 1-591-95061-9

According to the introduction '...the Manual of dental implants is designed to initiate dental students, general dentists, dental hygienists and staff into the world of implant restorative dentistry and maintenance.' It aims to be a resource for dental professionals new to implant dentistry and as such it almost meets its aim. It concentrates on the restoration and maintenance of implants and it is not intended to be used by anyone intending to place implants. It is a spiral bound book, which adds nothing to its desirability but makes it practical to use as a reference whilst working.

The first of its six chapters is titled 'Basic principles' and is written in a style that appears to be aimed at the layperson rather than the professional. The next chapter on diagnosis is too brief for my liking, concentrating on radiographic investigations, although these are covered comprehensively.

Treatment planning is reasonably well covered in the next chapter but it is surprising that Tarnow's¹ important study on the relationship between the interdental papillae and contact point in the aesthetic zone is not mentioned. The references listed in the extensive bibliography are not referred to in the text but divided into chapters. This would make life difficult for a student wishing to follow up any statements made in the text.

There are some interesting cases described in the chapter on restoration sequences with many excellent colour photographs, which are a useful aid to understanding the often complicated techniques.

Maintenance is allotted a chapter to itself, which is not surprising as one of the authors is a dental hygienist who incidentally is described as an employee of Straumann. It should be noted however that a number of different systems are described throughout the book with no particular emphasis on any one system.

The final chapter is titled 'Implants in practice' and is largely aimed at the US market, although the principles of involving the whole team in integrating implantology into a general practice should be considered by any dentist wanting to offer implants to their patients.

In general the text is written as a series of bullet points, which I found disjointed and difficult to follow in places. Many important issues in implantology are glossed over or not discussed at all and this is serious flaw in such a text.