We welcome the reader to the third edition of Atlas of Oral Implantology. This book is an instructional manual on how to evaluate patients for implant therapy, evaluate host sites, select implant types (although no preferences are stated for specific proprietary products), place implants step by step, observe patients, diagnose incipient problems, institute remedial techniques (troubleshooting), perform a wide variety of restorative modalities, and maintain and follow patients during the postoperative and postrestorative periods.

This atlas is arranged in a unique manner. It should be read in its entirety before any workups are performed or patient care is given. The reader may have no interest in some chapters or parts of chapters. Nevertheless, to harvest optimal benefits from the book, the reader must understand its design and all the material presented.

Chapters 2 through 5 and parts of the appendixes explain the value and application of implants in general, how to choose the appropriate design for each condition presented, which patients should be treated with implants and why, the tests that should be performed to assess a patient’s eligibility for implants, the anatomic characteristics of potential host sites, and how the basic implant designs differ and, in these differences, how they may best serve practitioner and patient. These chapters should be read before any subsequent chapters on specific techniques.

Chapter 6 explains the armamentarium an implant surgeon needs before undertaking any procedure. In addition, at the beginning of each chapter on a particular implant technique, a list of special or additional instruments specific to that modality is presented. As a further aid, most chapters start with “caveats” for each technique described. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Chapter 6 also suggests a classic operatory design. A specific room need not be set aside for implant surgery; however, all necessary instruments and supplies must be available that will allow the implantologist to perform the surgery or change a treatment plan during the procedure. For example, a blade might be indicated instead of a planned root form because the ridge is too narrow, or a larger diameter implant may be required if the osteotomy becomes too wide.

Chapters 9, 10, and 11 cover root form surgery. This information is offered because not all companies have implants of larger diameters that can serve this purpose. In fact, the decision to perform a subperiosteal implant should be a viable one if endosteal implants are not suitable. The supplies and facilities for such a procedure must be immediately available. Optimally, the reader will become a complete implantologist; that is, one who develops the capability to manage any situation in which implants of any design may be used or substituted />