The Complete Handbook of Dentistry

I was hoping for a bit more depth in the troubleshooting section for digital scanners. The basics are covered well, but for the price, I expected more advanced diagnostic trees for connectivity issues. The rest of the book gives a solid, no-frills overview that I will keep for reference, especially the section on autoclave maintenance.

As a practice manager, I found the chapter on choosing the right Dentistry to be the most useful part. It gave me a clear framework to discuss equipment needs with the dentists I work for without getting lost in clinical jargon. It definitely reads more like a text book then a casual manual, which I appreciated for the rigor, but it is a bit dry.

This is the book I wish I'd had in dental school. The chapter on understanding the 'why' behind day-to-day dental procedures makes the connection between the clinical theory and the physical operation much clearer than the textbooks I had. The section on evaluating supplies is also very practical, and I've already used the criteria to speak with a sales rep from our distributor.

I bought this for my DSO's administrative staff to get a better handle on our operational spend. It's detailed enough for a non-clinical person to follow the logic of what materials and machines need to be prioritized. I docked one star because a couple of the equipment recommendations in the maintenance chapter feel slightly dated, but overall it's a very sound investment for my team.

I really wanted to like this more. As a lab technician, the content on the clinical side is solid, but the chapter on materials only glosses over the chemistry and mechanical properties of different ceramics and composites that are most important to me. It's a good generalist book, but for a specialist, it just didn't hit the mark. The first chapter is a good refresher on the production side of typical practice though.

There is a lot of information packed into this book, which is both its strength and its weakness. It serves as an excellent encyclopedia for looking up specific facts, but it is not a page-turner. The best parts are when it gets into the concrete budgeting examples in the advanced chapters. I found myself skipping the more clinical details and sticking to the business-focused advice.

The maintenance chapter alone was worth the price. We had a recurring issue with our highspeed handpieces losing torque, and the step-by-step diagnostic flow for lubrication and bearing wear solved it for us. It's a serious manual for serious practitioners. We now have a set protocol for testing and tracking the performance of our handpieces, which we didn't have before.

I appreciate how the book is written without any fluff or heavy sales pitch for the high-end equipment. It provides a clear picture of what different levels of technology can do and, more importantly, what they cost to maintain. I've used the selection matrix in chapter three to help a friend opening a new clinic decide where to put his budget, rather than spending all of it on a flashy chair unit.