Manual of clinical periodontics: a reference manual for diagnosis and treatment

  • F.G. Serio &
  • C.E. Hawley
USA: Lexi-Comp price $54.95, pp146 ISBN 1930598823 | ISBN: 1-930-59882-3

This book is presented as a reference manual for dental and dental hygiene students, general dentists and dental hygienists. It is of sturdy construction (spiral-bound with laminated pages) and should withstand the rigours of being transported around in a student's briefcase or backpack. It has 12 chapters, including periodontal diagnosis, anatomy, classification, treatment planning, prevention, non-surgical and surgical treatment. The individual chapters have tabs for easy location.

The book is well illustrated with clinical photographs plus line drawings to explain concepts such as the orientation of incisions for flap surgery. The book is written in a 'Question and Answer' format, which means that preceding each paragraph or small section, a question is posed that is answered in the following text. At first, this seems a good idea — certainly it prepares students to answer stock questions that might be fired at them by a teacher. However, at times it can feel very contrived, as if the text was written first and then a question was constructed to fit the text. This results in some strange questions like 'What are the consequences of periodontitis that are so worrisome to the periodontist and remedied by osseous surgery?' Although allowing students to learn responses to particular questions, this format may not lead to good, integrated understanding of the topic.

This book is written primarily for US dentists. The appendix on insurance coding has no relevance in the UK, and many of the drugs and oral care products discussed have American trade names which will be unfamiliar to the British reader. No references are cited in the text, but there is an excellent 'Further Reading' section at the end.

Some of the treatment protocols are out of step with modern UK practice. For example, it is suggested that poorly-controlled diabetics should only receive emergency periodontal treatment and treatment should be covered by systemic antibiotics. It is hard to think of the rationale for this, and this treatment philosophy would not be recommended by any UK dental school.

My main concern is that this book is neither adequate for a periodontist (as it does not contain enough information on the detail of periodontal procedures) nor for a general dentist (as it probably contains too much information on periodontal surgery). Perhaps it will be of interest to those general practitioners with an interest in periodontics who wish to have a further reference book for their practice library.