Book review: Dentine hypersensitivity

  • P. G. Robinson
Academic Press price £95; pp 336 ISBN 9780128016312 | ISBN: 978-0-1280-1631-2

Dentine hypersensitivity: developing a person-centred approach to oral health provides an extremely useful resource for dental practitioners who are interested in gaining an in-depth understanding of dentine hypersensitivity.

The book is organised into four sections and consists of 18 chapters in total. The first section of the book provides an introduction to the main material contained within the volume. It provides a detailed biomedical background to dentine hypersensitivity (DH) in terms of the clinical presentation of the condition. It progresses to discuss some of the physiological issues associated with tooth sensitivity and highlights that the application of a biomedical perspective alone is not sufficient as a means of identifying the best course of action to effectively treat DH (chapter two). Chapter three discusses the epidemiology of DH as a means of exposing the scale of the issue and the inherent dangers of failing to diagnose the condition. Chapter four progresses to discuss the various courses of treatment that are available to clinically manage DH and highlights some of the recent innovations that have been made in the field.

Part two focuses on previous research in the area of DH and examines some of the existing subject expertise that is available. In particular, it focuses on the condition-specific oral health-related quality-of-life measure, which incorporates a dentine hypersensitivity experience questionnaire that aims to help practitioners develop a biopsychosocial understanding of the condition.

In the fourth part of the book, the emphasis switches to understanding what DH actually means and how oral health research is required for practitioners to develop an understanding of the ways in which dental health can have implications beyond the mouth alone.

This book provides an extremely interesting overview of the ways in which social and behavioral science can have profound implications for the treatment of dental conditions and the ways in which practitioners interact with and treat patients. With a retail price of £95, it represents a significant investment; however, it contains valuable insights into a common condition that dental practitioners frequently encounter, and will therefore be a useful read for dentists who are commencing their own practice or who have a specific interest in the DH condition.