Color Atlas of Common Oral Diseases. Robert P. Langlais and Craig Miller. Third Edition. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Philadelphia. 2003.
Soft Cover. ISBN 0 –7817 – 3385 – 5. 242 pages.

We too often forget that radiology is part of the greater diagnostic procedure and this book has many clinical photos of disease processes with radiographs of the condition adjacent to them giving a more complete picture of the condition. This is a great book on oral medicine but the many associated radiographs make for a review in a Radiology Newsletter worthwhile. The many radiographs are all very clear and show good examples of what is intended to be portrayed. Compared to the previous addition, many radiographs have been added.

There are short legends of the conditions on the left side of all the pages with clinical photographs and radiographs on the right side. The accompanying text is abbreviated to present concise overviews with emphasis on the description of the lesion, which allows a useful understanding of the disorder.

Furthermore, in this edition the authors have added a new section on radiographic dental anomalies. The short section on Cysts of the Jaws consists predominantly of radiographs (with great descriptions on the opposite page) as does the section on radiopaque lesions of the jaws. The book also contains a brief glossary of descriptive terms that describe the findings and a separate listing of prescriptions.

Compared to the previous edition, additional examples have been added and several clinical photographs have been substituted with better examples.

One minor point of criticism of this book; there are several pages that do not have page numbers and looking up conditions on these pages takes a little longer. In certain places in the book about 14 continuous pages are without page numbers.

To quote the authors “The third edition will be of significant help to clinicians at all levels of experience in creating a differential diagnosis, and forming a basis of rational approach to managing and resolving patients problems”. This referee agrees entirely with this opinion.

Neill Serman,
American Director