Orthodontic treatment of impacted teeth, 3rd edition

  • A. Becker
Wiley-Blackwell price £104.00; pp 456 ISBN 9781444336757 | ISBN: 978-1-4443-3675-7

The first edition of Orthodontic treatment of impacted teeth was published 14 years ago and as with most medical specialties there are always new and interesting developments leading to changes in practice. The third edition of this book addresses these changes and, as in the previous edition, aims to give the reader invaluable insight into the current thinking on impacted teeth ranging from causes to diagnosis to treatment.

The book is divided into 15 chapters; each addressing different areas and follows a natural progression with an introductory chapter looking at how to diagnose whether a tooth is indeed impacted, the timing of treatment, how to treat an impacted tooth and the importance of other specialties in the process.

Radiographic techniques including cone beam CT, the options available surgically and the types of attachments for impacted teeth are then discussed in the chapters that follow.

The first few chapters, dealing with the more rudimentary issues, are dedicated to maxillary central incisors; palatally impacted canines; and other less common impacted teeth such as mandibular canines, maxillary first molars and second premolars. In these chapters the author discusses in a very structured manner the prevalence, causes, diagnosis and management.

The book, having programmed the reader, then changes gear and starts to address more complex matters such as root resorption, teeth that are impacted in cysts and treating adult patients with impacted teeth. Failure to resolve impactions is discussed in depth with a look at the possible patient, surgical and orthodontic factors that may be associated.

He unsparingly divulges information and this is evident in his chapters on lingual appliances and cleido cranial dysplasia, where he addresses the challenges these both pose in delivering orthodontic treatment.

The final chapter then looks at a selection of complex case studies and exhibits how they can be resolved. Notably each chapter is very well referenced and contains several coloured illustrations as well as examples of patient case studies to aid the text, making the overall layout of each chapter enthralling.

I found it extremely hard to justify the quality of this publication in such few words and would recommend it to my fellow practitioners who would like to gain more knowledge on this vast topic. The knowledge of the author is very evident and he does not fail to deliver in imparting this. This title definitely deserves a prominent position on your bookshelf.