An Introduction to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery PDF

Preface

Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a unique discipline. In the United Kingdom, it was the ninth of the current 10 recognized surgical specialties. In Germany practitioners more often start from a medical base, and in North America they have a dental base. This specialty is internationally recognized as requiring a broad base in both medicine and dentistry and has advanced enormously as a unique surgical discipline since the 1990s.

Partly as a result of the pace of the change, and partly because education tends to lag behind practice in professions, undergraduates and postgraduates - whether medically or dentally based - who wish to grasp the core components of this fascinating discipline are obliged to search far and wide for information and practical guidance. Increasingly, the dental undergraduate curriculum emphasizes restorative dentistry and a (highly likely) career in general dental practice that narrows the focus of many of our graduates to the point of being unable to cope with the basic medical care of hospital patients (a necessity for those wishing any form of oral and maxillofacial surgical experience). TI1e undergraduate medical curriculum barely includes mention of the mouth, and few current basic surgical training rotations include oral and maxillofacial surgery.

In trying to address some aspects of this problem, this book aims to provide the reader with a text that encompasses the full range of oral and maxillofacial surgery while also addressing the core competencies necessary for undergraduates and those in basic specialist training. The initial chapters aim to inform, adding to what is already known, the next section to instruct and the last chapters t o provide the detail that those specializing in the discipline require.

It is in at! respects a 'generalist' clinical 'specialist' textbook for those anywhere in the world. In this second edition, we have included international perspectives. In those chapters where the UK, US and German perspectives are distinctly different, a section at the end of the chapter has been added. Where there is a general consensus, the views have been integrated into the main body of text.

Whoever chooses to read it, the hope is that they will find it easier to learn something about this exciting and relatively young surgical speciality than has previously been the case. At the end of each chapter, where appropriate, we have included some relevant references and recommendations for further reading. As has been the case with my other books, major input has come from many other colleagues; however, any problems or inconsistencies with the final product remain my responsibility.