Book review

Ece Eden, Professor of Pedodontics at Ege University in Turkey, has gathered 12 international colleagues to produce 10 chapters giving the evidence-base (or lack of it) for caries prevention; a short book, only 183 pages, of which 30 pages are references.

The first chapter on epidemiology introduces three visual/tactile caries detection/diagnostic systems, ICDAS, Nyvad criteria and a system designed for use in epidemiology called CAST. This system is illustrated with the smallest figures I have ever tried to see, just 14 mm square! Chapter 2 expands on ICDAS with more tiny figures, but majors on detection systems based on light transmission. Chapter 3 introduces the Nyvad criteria where a judgement of lesion activity and cavitation are logically presented, with the validated evidence-base as the relevant factors for caries management. Past caries experience is shown to be the most important predictor for future caries. The disagreements between these chapters are confusing for the reader but perhaps the editor was wise to keep her big beast authors in separate cages to minimize blood on the pages!