Prosthetic Treatment of the Edentulous Patient

This is the third edition of a book which looks at the swing from the mechanistic to the biological approach in complete-denture prosthetics. With the change in outlook there has been an increasing awareness of the tremendous variation that is found in edentulous patients: the variation in quality of the denture-bearing tissues and their responses to function, the varying behaviour of the jaw mechanism, the differing patterns of muscle function which act upon the dentures and, finally, the varying response of patients to the challenge of wearing complete dentures. Clinical techniques have been devised and modified to meet these variations. This book attempts to present the theoretical background in the early chapters and to use this background to justify the clinical techniques which are subsequently described. Also included in this book are an examination of the background information on materials science, pre-prosthetic surgery and prosthetic laboratory techniques as these subjects are covered in texts readily available to students. This edition of the book looks specifically at the developments in technique since the first edition was published.
The most significant change reported by the authors is the continuing fall in the number of edentulous patients together with the transition to the completely artificial dentition made somewhat later in life.