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BOOK REVIEW |
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Year : 2014 | Volume
: 1
| Issue : 2 | Page : 161 |
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Textbook of prosthodontics
SP Aggarwal
The reviewer is a professor of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics and Medical Director, Green Park Dental Institute & Research Centre, New Delhi, India
Date of Web Publication | 31-Jul-2014 |
Correspondence Address: MDS S P Aggarwal The reviewer is a professor of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics and Medical Director, Green Park Dental Institute & Research Centre, New Delhi India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |

How to cite this article: Aggarwal S P. Textbook of prosthodontics. Astrocyte 2014;1:161 |
Authors: V Rangarajan, TV Padmanabhan
Publisher: Elsevier
Edition: First
Publication Year: 2013
ISBN: 978-81-312-2192-1
Price: 1075
Prosthodontics can be a minefield for dental students and clinicians who must ensure that the most suitable restoration is placed in order to restore aesthetics, form, and function. Textbook of Prosthodontics by Rangarajan and Padmanabhan is aimed at readers of all levels of experience from undergraduate and postgraduate to the general dental practitioner. This text covers an immense range of subspecialties from removable and fixed prosthodontics to oral implantology and smile design.
The book is divided into four parts: complete dentures (CD), removable partial dentures (RPD), fixed partial dentures (FPD), and the miscellaneous section covering veneers, implantology, and maxillofacial prosthetics. A creditable feature of this text is that each section begins with a detailed discussion of diagnosis, treatment planning, and occlusion before moving on to the finer nuances of material selection, clinical protocols, and laboratory steps. With numerous tables, boxes, flowcharts, and more than 3000 color photographs and line diagrams, the book delivers on high visual impact that makes it easier to comprehend and more importantly, retain the information presented in text.
In the CD section, chapters dealing with impressions, maxillomandibular relations, denture insertion, and postinsertion problems are particularly impressive. On a personal note, the photographs in the crucial segment of 'teeth setting' could have been much more helpful had they been better composed and less pixelated. It must be appreciated that the authors have done a stellar job on the FPD segment with flawless chapters on tooth preparation, provisionalization, laboratory procedures, and failures. The coverage of implant prosthetics, laminate veneers, maxillofacial prosthetics, and smile design can at best be described as 'basic introductions' aimed at providing undergraduate students with enough courage to tackle the more comprehensive texts on these subjects.
The sheer number of illustrations is remarkable and it is evident that it must have taken a dedicated team many years to gather such resources. However, some of them could be substituted with high resolution files.
The format of the text is very logical and the sequencing of chapters lends an air of simple coherence to the book. One really does not have to turn back to find missing pieces of information as with other works of the same genre. Toward the end of the book, the authors have also included section wise 'suggested reading' and chapter wise 'sample essay and short questions' that will be a great help to those preparing for written examinations. In fact as an undergraduate who has already built his/her fundamentals by reading the 'indispensables' (as we like to call them); Boucher's (CD), McCracken's (RPD) and Shillingberg's (FPD), this book would be a fantastic refresher a few days before any exam, viva, or departmental presentation.
Personally, I think this book is a very comprehensive overview and great resource into prosthodontics for dentists of all levels of experience and a definite revision guide for undergraduate students. It is economical, easy to retain and exhaustively illustrated. With a few improvements and additions, there is great scope for subsequent editions to be real 'keepers'. One of the authors' note calls their work "a textbook for UGs, a basic platform for PGs and a ready reckoner for practitioners". I could not agree more.
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