HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by McDermott, I. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by McDermott, I.

Dental Instruments: A Pocket Guide

Dr. McDermott is Professor, Department of Restorative Dentistry, University of Medicine and Dentistry/New Jersey Dental School, 110 Bergen Street, Newark, NJ 07103; 973-972-3851 phone; 973-972-0370 fax; ivalg{at}umdnj.edu.

As they begin their intimidating task of learning dentistry, I bet students would be happy to see a nifty, user-friendly little book like Dental Instruments: A Pocket Guide among their required textbooks!

Aimed at the beginning dental or dental hygiene or assisting student, this guide is a quick but comprehensive introduction to just about every instrument used in dental practice. Arranged by instrument type and specialty use, the book contains seventeen chapters, including Basic Dental Instruments, Handpieces, Burs, Evacuation Devices and Air/Water Syringe, Endodontic Instruments, Oral Surgery Instruments, and many more. Everything used in a dental office is in this book, from protective eyewear to the most esoteric endodontic reamers and orthodontic pliers. Disposables are included, such as nitrile utility gloves, matrix bands, and linen finishing strips. But most of the book consists of a carefully arranged and detailed catalogue of every possible hand-held dental instrument, from angle formers to Wedelstaedt chisels, curettes to amalgam condensers, elevators to needle-stick protectors.

Pocket-sized and spiral-bound, this book is like a well-organized set of flashcards, and it is intended to be used as such. It is arranged in landscape orientation, with the page above the spiral showing a clear photograph or line drawing of the instrument without any text, and the page below giving the instrument name and a concise description of its function and "characteristics." Often the pictures are labeled with numbers indicating the parts or special features of the instrument, which are detailed in the characteristics section on the page below. In the book’s preface, the author suggests students fold the book back to use the illustration pages as flashcards to "try to name the instrument from memory, and describe its function and special characteristics."

A particularly useful feature of the book is its inclusion of tray set-up pages at the conclusion of each chapter. The tray set-up for amalgam restorations includes twenty-six instruments, each of which has been detailed in the chapter. The oral surgery chapter offers two sample set-ups, one for extraction of the maxillary right first molar and one for extraction of an impacted mandibular molar. Both a periodontal surgery tray set-up and a dental hygiene set-up are included. I can see these set-up pages being quite useful for dentists who are doing in-office training for new personnel. Another excellent section is the chapter on Sterilization Equipment, which covers cassettes, wraps, ultrasonic cleaners, and several types of autoclaves and monitoring systems. It even presents an illustrated step-by-step sterilization management system. Dental auxiliary students studying for licensure examinations in infection control will find this comprehensive and easy to use.

Another nifty thing about Dental Instruments: A Pocket Guide is that Elsevier Saunders publishing company has linked it to its Evolve Student Learning Resources Center on the World Wide Web. For students, the Evolve site has quizzes for each chapter of this guide and web links for further study. It also has a video-game-like "drag-and-drop" section in which students can test their skill at selecting the correct instruments for a given procedure and arranging them in the proper sequence on the tray. For faculty, the Evolve site has lots of handy tools and features. Once the course has been registered with Elsevier, every image in the book can be downloaded in a form preformatted for use in PowerPoint presentations. There are also downloadable test sheets and a question bank that allows faculty to customize questions if desired. The Evolve site also offers faculty a course management program with many of the course tool features of proprietary programs like WebCT. For faculty who use WebCT, there are downloadable "e-Packs" of management information that can be used directly to set up a WebCT course for use with the book.

On the Evolve site, there is also a list of other Elsevier textbooks available in the area of dentistry. From the selection, I gather that their target audience is in the dental auxiliary field, as opposed to D.M.D./D.D.S. students. When I was reviewing it, I discovered that it is currently being used in UMDNJ’s School of Health-Related Professions dental assisting and dental hygiene programs. For D.M.D./D.D.S. students, it would most probably be used in a Basic Dental Sciences course, as opposed to a specific discipline course, as it crosses many disciplines.

I found Dental Instruments: A Pocket Guide fun to use and surprisingly informative. Students in any dental field who require basic information could benefit from its clarity and thoroughness in presenting the instrumentation of our profession!

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by McDermott, I. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by McDermott, I.