Clinical Problems in Dentistry PDF

In the second decade of the Internet, our patients are living longer. Despite outward appearances, many are chronically ill. Advances in care pathways and modern medical treatments allow them to live robust lives. Patients, families and carers now effortlessly access electronic information and attend their appointments with a surprising degree of familiarity of the conditions they have and the treatments they wish to have. In the advent of the digital age, in response to information now in the hands of our patients, technologies were developed for clinical training with the surgical professions seeking refuge in simulation from the onslaught of widely dispersed information freely available to all.

Anatomical knowledge was taken from the cadaver to the computer, dissection being demoted and digisection promoted. Vast tracts of the training syllabus were deposited in digital… dot… domains in the progressive modernisation of clinical careers. In addition to the above developments, patients with specific signs are no longer invited to attend for student clinical examinations. Professional actors recruited into OSCEs have replaced them. These days, dental students are asked to assess symptoms that an actor speaks about, rather than examining signs a patient suffers from. Today, with electronic information being readily available, there is a fundamental question whether there is a need for a book such as this. When contemplating this project last year, the advice given by Professor St John Crean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery, RCS England was; there is still a need for the clinical textbook. In contrast to evolving electronic media, the textbook is a preserved specimen, only fading ink and yellowing pages mark the passage of time.