ATLAS of ORAL and MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY (SECOND EDITION) 2024 – TWO VOLUME

I am honored to provide comment on the second edition of what I consider to be the most complete, and masterfully illustrated, atlas of oral and maxillofacial surgery ever published. This encyclopedic overview will enable our trainees, and practicing surgeons, to make evidence-based surgical decisions and afford our patients better outcomes. It is a stunning display in text, photographs, and illustration of the breadth and complexity of contemporary oral and maxillofacial surgery. A fledgling discipline that began formally in 1918 as “oral surgery,” was propelled, in the first fifty years, by advances in office-based surgery, anesthesia, pharmacology, surgical instrumentation, sterile technique, and experiential wisdom gained from trauma surgery in two World Wars. Starting in the late ‘60s, and early ‘70s, our training programs were formalized and broadened to include more exposure to general surgery and surgical subspecialties. An explosion of knowledge in surgical instrumentation, reconstructive and craniofacial techniques, microsurgery, biomaterials, implants, and imaging in the last fifty years has brought us to the current state of our specialty. This remarkable tome is not only the quintessential reference in oral and maxillofacial surgery, but a testimonial to that century of progress. Dr. Ira Rutkow in American Surgery: An Illustrated History stated that “there is no way to separate present day surgery, and one’s own practice routines, from the experiences of all the surgeons and all the years that have gone before.” This exceptional text brings an organized, consistent, visual pedagogic methodology covering office-based minor procedures to the most complicated head and neck reconstructive surgeries. In the late 19th century, the English novelist Samuel Butler once said, “Diseases come of their own accord, but cures come difficult and hard.” Drs. Kademani and Tiwana have created an exceptional single-source reference for our most current understanding of maxillofacial surgical procedures. Contemporary therapeutic decisions must be based on fact, evidence, and experience. Only scientific evidence can adjudicate those difficult decisions we all make daily as surgeons. I personally am indebted to Deepak and Paul for this Herculean effort to synthesize the past, present, and future of our specialty.