BOOK REVIEW

Complete Dentures. A Clinical Manual for the GeneralDental Practitioner

Hugh Devlin; ISBN 3-540-42183-1; Springer-Verlag,Berlin, Heidelberg; 2002, Price £37

This is a compact book has just over 100 pages and isillustrated with 72 colour photographs. There are sevenchapters which roughly follow the clinical stages forcomplete dentures construction with a final chapter thatrounds up some loose ends. Each chapter is wellreferenced with suitably selected articles from currentresearch.

The first chapter outlines the normal procedures inassessing a patient prior to treatment, with particularattention being paid to identifying errors in the presentdentures and the management of denture inducedstomatitis. The second chapter describes the techniquesand philosophies for impression taking and includessections on problems related to patients with �flabby’ridges and an exaggerated gag reflex. The third, exten-sive, chapter encompasses rather more than the title�Determining the jaw relation’ would expect us tobelieve, as it includes a fairly detailed section onpositioning and setting up denture teeth. The fourthchapter outlines procedures for checking the dentures atthe try in stage. The chapter also has more informationthat just a bare discussion of what to do at such anappointment and goes on to talk about the use ofposterior teeth with alternate occlusal anatomies and thebenefits of different types of articulator. The fitting ofthe dentures and the need for occlusal adjustment isdescribed in the fifth chapter. Chapter six outlines thelikely painful problems with which a patient may returnand how these may be corrected. The final chapter tiestogether a number of unrelated topics, including domi-ciliary visits, denture marking and denture repairs.

Overall the style is fairly easy to read, and eachchapter is full of additional content. But I am not surethat all these procedures are entirely practical in ageneral practice environment. For example, the authorrecommends the setting up of the anterior teeth at thechairside. A commendable suggestion which undoubt-edly develops the patient’s confidence, but where dothe correct shade and mould of denture tooth comefrom? Some chapters have too much detail includingtopics of historic interest (the use of plaster andpumice rims) or which are probably outside the realmof the high street practitioner (denture space impres-sion techniques) and more the remit of the specialistprosthodontist.

The book’s title refers to it as being a Manual forGDP’s but it gladly does not follow the prescriptiveform of the traditional clinical manual as it provides amuch wider background to the theory and practice ofeach clinical stage. It appears that this book is directedtowards the mature GDP who wishes to expand andimprove his complete denture prosthetics, while alsoappealing to the VT to help him better understandcomplete dentures and wants to consolidate his under-graduate knowledge.

Peter HowellSenior Lecturer

Unit of Prosthetic DentistryEastman Dental InstituteUniversity College London

256 Gray’s Inn RoadLondon WC1X 8LD, UK

E-mail: p.howell@eastman.ucl.ac.uk

Oral Diseases (2003) 10, 246� 2003 Blackwell Munksgaard All rights reserved

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