Book review: Review of Aesthetic Facial Restoration

Book review: Review of Aesthetic Facial Restoration

British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (2000) 38, 163–164 © 2000 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons BRITISH JOURNA...

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British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (2000) 38, 163–164 © 2000 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ORAL

& M A X I L L O FA C I A L S U R G E RY

Book Reviews For the majority of oral and maxillofacial surgeons who deal with traumatic injuries to the teeth in children as part of their trauma service, this book will provide interesting information. Others, who prepare medicolegal reports for solicitors, will find that this book gives them the ammunition for answering the inevitable questions about the prognosis of teeth following injury. This book is written by two well-known authors, Graham Roberts and Peter Longhurst. It is well organized, easy to read, not too long and beautifully illustrated with black and white diagrams, photographs of X-rays and good-quality coloured, clinical photographs. In addition, at the end of each chapter, there is a short list of relevant references. Some of the statistics given are quite surprising. For instance, when deciduous teeth are damaged, the risk of damage to the underlying developing permanent teeth can vary between 34% and 52% with different types of injury. This is a comprehensive book covering the details of treatment almost to the point of being pedantic. It is suitable reading for anyone with an interest in such injuries, be they undergraduate or ageing surgeon. It is quick and easy to read and should be a useful book for the individual or departmental book shelf.

DOI: 10.1054/bjom.1999.0023

Review of Aesthetic Facial Restoration. Elliot H. Rose. J. B. Lippincott-Raven 1998. ISBN 0 316 75646 6. 367 pages This is a beautifully presented book with very good line drawings and more elaborate drawings of complex surgical procedures. However, for a book of 367 pages long, I was surprised that there were only eight authors. Elliot Rose himself contributes to 13 of the 19 chapters and therefore this book is very much a personal experience and view on the management of mostly complex facial injuries due to burns. The first part of the book discusses technical aspects in eight chapters and this is an excellent update on most of the surgical techniques now available in facial restoration and reconstruction. Discussion includes tissue expansion, suction assisted lipectomies, scar management techniques, laser resurfacing and microdermal pigmentation. Use of these more minor procedures to enhance an initial transfer of a free flap are interesting and well described. The second major part of the book discusses restoration of anatomical areas of the face and neck. This is somewhat repetitive in that the same patients have been used in more than one chapter. Techniques described include descriptions of most of the routine microvascular free tissue transfer techniques available to a head and neck surgeon, but directed more specifically to problems of loss of the facial skin. It is a shame that, in the vast majority of postoperative photographs, the patients are fully made up which makes a comparison to the preoperative state somewhat artificial. On the same note, there is no chapter on surgical complications which are inevitable in the management of such complex surgical cases. Having said that, the results of the surgery are quite excellent in some cases. The third part of the book is on psychological aspects and I think that in many ways this was the most interesting chapter. I was particularly interested in the publication of excerpts from interviews. These excerpts give a rare insight into the way in which this kind of disfigurement has affected these individuals and very much mirrors the quotations throughout the book from Lucy Grealy’s excellent book, Autobiography of a Face. I don’t think that this textbook will become a classical text as it is very much a single surgeon’s personal view of his experience of the management of these complex cases. On the other hand, I think it a good reference for a surgeon in any of the head and neck specialties to be used when faced with a particularly complex facial disfigurement.

B. S. AVERY

DOI: 10.1054/bjom.1999.0052

Otoplasty, Aesthetics and Reconstructive Techniques By Jack Davis. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1997 Price £103. 137 pp. ISBN 0–387–94878 3. This is not so much a textbook on otoplasty, but an update to a book written by the author in 1987. I do not feel that the beginner will find it very helpful, since it deals mostly with advanced problems encountered by the author, who is obviously a master craftsman in the field of ear reconstruction. There are many references to his pioneering book published in 1987, without which it is difficult to follow much of the text. The largest proportion of the book is dedicated to the very specialized subject of microtia and atresia of the ear. Dr Davis’s management of these cases and his results have to be admired, and his case reports will make interesting reading for anybody familiar with this field. The photography is a little disappointing. There is a mixture of black and white, and coloured photography which I found confusing when trying to draw comparisons between them. The author is an Argentinean plastic surgeon working in Buenos Aires who has written extensively in Spanish and English and has an entertaining style, but a lot of his publication is anecdotal, although the experience which he describes will prove valuable and interesting reading to the experienced surgeon.

J. S. BROWN

DOI: 10.1054/bjom.1999.0027

Oral and Dental Trauma in Children and Adolescents. Graham Roberts and Peter Longhurst. Oxford University Press 1996. ISBN 0 19 262055 X(h/b); 0 19 26204 95 (p/b). 112 pages

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