Endodontics: principles and practice, 4th edition

  • M. Torabinejad &
  • R. E. Walton
UK: Elsevier price £57.99; pp 496 ISBN 9781416038511 | ISBN: 978-1-4160-3851-1

In this edition of Endodontics: principles and practice first of all you notice the impressive accolade of authors involved, with no less than the father of MTA as an editor. The book itself is strikingly attractive with a robust hardback cover and glossy pages. Plentiful colour photographs of impressive relevance and quality hold the reader's interest throughout.

The text is organised systematically and comprehensively covers the principles of endodontics, however, certain chapters lack concision and appear to build upon the assumption that the reader has very little knowledge, if any. Advantageously, as a result of this, the book is very readable and is consistently clear.

The content, as the authors mention in their preface 'is not designed to be a cookbook'. It does not provide a step-by-step guide on how to perform endodontics, rather a basis upon which to build your understanding of the subject. It is specifically aimed toward students and general dental practitioners and achieves the level of an excellent final year student or GDP wishing to develop his interest in endodontics. It is certainly not comprehensive and does not attempt to attract a specialist audience. Little text is dedicated to rotary endodontics or different systems available; however, the principles of such aspects are covered adequately.

With the book is a 'companion DVD'. This DVD contains procedural videos and chapter review questions. The questions are available within the text but the videos provide an invaluable source of educational material. The DVD is very user friendly and doesn't try to surreptitiously install items onto your PC.

The chapter review questions are set by endodontists not involved in the writing of the chapter itself. This provides the reader with questions that test understanding as opposed to simply referring to the appropriate text.

The authors provide the readers with the opportunity of further reading of their evidence with plentiful references for each chapter, mostly from respected, well known journals. The papers referenced are contemporaneous and relevant to the chapter subject.

In summary, the book retails at close to £60 and seems to be well justified in this price. It does exactly what it says on the tin by providing only the principles and practice of endodontics; this book stays readable and reasonable for dental student and practitioner alike. Not an essential read, rather an interesting and informative one. To be recommended.