Dean M. DeLuke, DDS, MBA, Editor

The purpose of this issue of the Atlas of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics of North America is to serve as an aid to identification of the more common syndromes of the head and neck. As such, it should be useful to a varied audience, including not only the oral and maxillofacial surgeon but also the oral pathologist, the practitioner of oral medicine, and members of the craniofacial team—the orthodontist, pediatric dentist, speech and language specialist, geneticist, plastic surgeon, ENT specialist, pediatrician, nurse coordinator, and others.

In keeping with the established format for the Atlas of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics of North America , it was necessary to limit the size and scope of this work. We have therefore included 70 of the more important head and neck syndromes and organized them using the same nosology as in the landmark text of Robert Gorlin, first published with Pindborg in 1964. Each syndrome is presented in a highly capsulized format, with sections devoted to

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  Inheritance patterns

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  Clinical features (with histology, if relevant)

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  Differential diagnosis

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  Treatment considerations

While the emphasis in this issue is mainly on identification, clinical applications have also been presented wherever pertinent. For consistency when identifying the syndromes, we followed the custom of not using the possessive form, even though we might sometimes be more accustomed (incorrectly, I might add) to seeing the possessive form of the eponym. So, for example, we will refer to Gardner syndrome, not Gardner’s syndrome.

One of my mentors to whom this work is dedicated, Dr Leon Eisenbud, was often known to urge his students and residents: “Anytime you can, you should curl up with your copy of Gorlin’s Syndromes of the Head and Neck and just browse through it.” Leon, no doubt, had spent countless hours doing just that, for he was a master at identification and recognition of syndromes, functioning in an era before the age of instant Internet searches, before Lexicomp, in a time when even a Medline search required a trip to the medical library. In that era, you had to have much of the information in your memory bank, or at the very least, you had to know what textbook to pick up or where to begin your literature search. In this issue, we have condensed this important information into one source.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to each of the article authors. It was a distinct privilege to have been able to include the contributions of so many well-recognized leaders in the specialties of oral and maxillofacial surgery, oral pathology, and genetics in this issue of the Atlas of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics of North America .