Description
Before embarking on the second edition of Anatomy for Dental Medicine, we sought to find out how anatomy is currently being taught in North America. We consulted members of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and read their Basic Science Survey Series for Dentistry, a series of reports that clarify this very issue. What we found out is that teaching time is being squeezed and many institutions have combined courses that were once stand-alone (e.g., embryology, histology, and neuroanatomy) into the anatomy course. Armed with this knowledge, we set out to create a single-volume text atlas that would cover dental student’s needs across all formats of anatomy education, a feat that we think we have achieved with this second edition.
Some key features retained from the first edition are:
• Organized in a user-friendly format in which each two-page spread is a self contained guide to a specific topic.
• Intuitively arranged to facilitate learning. Coverage of each region begins by discussing the bones and joints and then adds the muscles, the vasculature, and the nerves. This information is then integrated in the topographic neurovascular anatomy coverage that follows.
• Features large, full-color, highly detailed artwork with clear and thorough labeling and descriptive captions, plus numerous schematics to elucidate concepts and tables to summarize key information for review and reference.
• Includes a full chapter devoted to sectional anatomy with radiographic images to demonstrate anatomy as seen in the clinical setting.
The second edition has two new chapters: an embryology chapter that introduces dental students to all of the major concepts that they need to be familiar with and that puts anatomical concepts from later chapters in context, and a chapter that covers the anatomy of the rest of body, which includes coverage of the upper limb, thorax, abdomen, and pelvis (the back is covered in Chapter 11 with the neck). In addition, we increased our coverage of neuroanatomy such that it should be sufficient to meet dental student’s needs.
In this second edition, we also rearranged material into a more regional approach, thus enhancing its usefulness as a companion to lecture-based material and to dissection courses. However, we also retained a systemic anatomy approach at the beginning of the atlas, which allows certain topics to be presented more clearly while providing a good entry point for the novice learner.
Other notable changes to the second edition include a new appendix on the anatomy of dental local anesthesia, which is one of the critical applications of head and neck anatomy. There are also appendices that include factual-type questions to test recall of information and clinical vignette-style questions that test comprehension and application. These appendices include full answer explanations. There is also more than 400 new illustrations, summary tables, dentally relevant clinical correlations, radiographs, and full-color photographs. The text, artwork, and labels have been thoroughly updated, and we welcome the continuing support of those members of the medical and dental community who alert us to any issues and keep us on our toes! All in all, we have taken our very well-received first edition and given it even more relevance and appeal such that it should serve dental students—and other students for whom the head and neck holds particular relevance—well for many effective years of studying to come.