Oral medicine and medically complex patients, 6th edition

  • P. B. Lockhart
(ed) Wiley-Blackwell price £46.99; pp 512 ISBN 9780470958308 | ISBN: 978-0-4709-5830-8

This text, edited by the esteemed Peter B. Lockhart, brings together expert opinion from clinical specialists from around the world to produce a comprehensive reference on in-hospital care and outpatient management of the medically compromised patient in the field of oral medicine.

This 512-page edition is beautifully presented in a hardback ring-bound text and is organised into seven chapters. An introductory chapter provides insight into procedures involved in caring for hospital in-patients from admission to discharge. This is followed by an extensive chapter concerned with the management of medically compromised patients in outpatient settings. This covers a wide range of relevant topics such as cardiac and respiratory disorders, cancer, intellectual disabilities, dementia, psychiatric disorders, and bone and joint disease. Each of these topics is laid out under useful subtitles such as significant events in the history, dental considerations, complications and treatment.

Subsequent chapters deal with common oral medicine conditions encountered by the dental professional; information pertaining to consultations for different clinical scenarios; dental, oral and maxillofacial and medical emergencies, and maxillofacial prosthetics.

There is an extensive appendix list that has been fully revised and updated in this edition – a strong selling point of this text. It allows the reader to expand on topics of interest, ranging from theoretical (fluid management, cranial nerves), to the more practical (scrub technique, splint construction), and other useful 'at a glance' diagrams (coagulation cascade, conversion tables). Another advantage is the inclusion of representative examples of note-taking for different patient episodes such as operations, discharges, admissions and reviews. Users can also access a wealth of useful information using the companion website.

Unfortunately, this book is very text-cumbersome with few diagrams and no clinical photographs. I feel this is to the detriment of the oral medicine conditions chapter, for example, where these would enhance understanding of topics covered. This, in addition to the fact that this text focuses heavily on hospital-based care, makes me question its value as a resource for the undergraduate dental student or the general dental practitioner.

I would recommend this book as a quick reference guide for dental professionals practising oral and maxillofacial surgery and/or oral medicine, and clinicians involved in the daily management of hospital in-patients.