Rebecca W. Smith

The Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery's Guide to Family Dental Care

This indispensable and up-to-date reference book provides all the information you need on what to expectand demandof the care that you and your family receive from your dentist.

A visit to the dentist can be daunting. In addition to the usual anxieties about what and how much treatment to expect, patients are now faced with a vast array of options created by recent advances in the prevention and diagnosis of dental disease. This totally up-to-date guide comprises a comprehensive overview of terms, procedures, and choices, making sense of the complexities of dental care and guiding you through explanations your dentist may not have time to give.

With one book you can research every aspect of prevention, disease, and treatment, from standard to cutting-edge, including:

how to select a dentist;
periodontal disease and other common dental concerns;
orthodontics, prostheses, and cosmetic dental procedures;
the newest technologies such as bone-integrated implants, guided tissue regeneration, and computerized imaging;
the costs, benefits, and risks of alternatives to state-of-the-art, as well as older, accepted dental therapies;
specific issues for different stages of developmentfrom birth to advanced yearsand for people with disabilities;
concerns about pain, radiation exposure from X-rays, fluoridation in water, and contracting AIDS or other infectious diseases through dental procedures.

Thorough and definitive, this essential medical resource belongs in every family's library.

Rebecca Smith is a medical and science writer; she lives in New York City.

Prepared in collaboration with over two dozen professors of dentistry from Columbia University who are at the forefront of clinical dental practice and research.

With this book, health-conscious consumers can easily maneuver through the ever-changing terrain of modern dental care to make informed, responsible decisions about the oral health of their families and themselves.

1997 / hardcover / ISBN 0-393-04036-4 / Photographs / 480 pages / health/dentistry