Book review

  • J. C. Posnick
Elsevier price £257.00; pp 1,864 ISBN 9781455726981 | ISBN: 978-1-4557-2698-1

Gaining an understanding of the interface between oral and maxillofacial surgery and orthodontics is not an easy task. Orthognathic surgery: principles and practice. Volumes 1 and 2 by J. C. Posnick, published by Elsevier, allows the reader to gain a vast amount of knowledge on both subjects and illustrates with great clarity how the two subject areas work together.

The book gives an utterly comprehensive account of the different dentofacial deformities amenable to orthognathic surgery. It discusses the methodology involved in planning these complex treatments, taking the reader through step by step approaches to each surgical procedure and in addition, looks at the long-term outlook and potential complications that can arise for patients in each case.

The text is split into seven sections starting with basic principles and surgical techniques, then working through the multitude of different presentations and considerations in different facial deformity cases. In total there are 1,864 pages in the two volumes and the quality of the publication never falters. For example, Chapter four discusses developmental influences on dentofacial deformity. The relevant anatomical and clinical features are illustrated in the most appropriate way in either pictorial form, CT scan images, clinical photographs and intraoral views depending on the case. The reader is left with no blind spots in their knowledge due to the level of detail in the book.

The treatment planning chapters allow the reader to really understand how to examine and analyse patient facial anatomy, and goes through the laboratory aspects involved in planning the pre-operative and post-operative study casts showing the proposed final result. Surgical treatment sequences are illustrated in pictorial and photographic format – quite literally a step by step approach. In addition there are 45 videos illustrating many of the surgical techniques discussed in the book. The videos are of exceptional clarity and the viewer is guided through the procedure with a running commentary. There is nothing negative to say about this book other than it will consume a lot of your time as you run through its pages.

I imagine that clinicians of all levels of experience will learn something from this book. It includes not only the descriptive factual elements but also the experience of the author, which is shared and supported by evidence and description from hundreds of referenced articles and textbooks. It is an excellent all round educational source for any practitioner and the owner of this text is unlikely to need any other textbook on orthognathic surgery.