By

Harsh Mohan, MD, MNAMS, FICPath, FUICC, Professor & Head, Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Sector-32 A, Chandigarh-160030, INDIA

Third revised and modern edition of Essential Pathology for Dental Students is being presented to readers to keep pace with the advances in pathology and contemporary technology.

The first edition of this book was prepared in 1995 according to the syllabus prescribed by the Dental Council of India for BDS students of second year. Their syllabus includes mainly General Pathology and Haematology; and as an author, at that time I had felt then that there was no need to over-burden them with details of Systemic Pathology which was not included in their syllabus. However, I realised on the basis of the subsequent feedback that their quest for learning more Pathology was almost as much as MBBS students. It could be owing to two reasons: Firstly, BDS students study in the same campuses as MBBS students in vast majority of colleges and share their study material, and are also taught by the same teachers in Pathology whose expectations from both categories are almost the same. Secondly, there is so wide discretion with the teacher, examiner and author in giving details of examples of diseases in General Pathology (e.g. in infections, tumours) that it would really be difficult to draw a line where General Pathology ends and Systemic Pathology begins.

This shortcoming had been adequately addressed in previous editions, and now again in the third edition by including many examples of important and common diseases from Systemic Pathology. Some highlights of the Third Edition are as under:

Updated contents: The subject is updated and made clearer, yet retaining its accepted style of simple and easy understanding of the contents. In general, the revised edition has a lot of recent useful information on molecular pathology and genetic basis in pathogenesis of diseases while some topics have been totally rewritten (e.g. Amyloidosis, Carcinogenesis, Lymphomas, Diabetes mellitus etc).
Organisation of the book: The revised edition has 7 sections including a section on Selected Topics from Systemic Pathology, considered relevant to learning of general processes of diseases. In view of significance of cytology in current times, a chapter on Basic Diagnostic Cytopathology has been added in the new edition.
In full colour: The entire book is now printed in full colour to cope with modern trends and needs. All the illustrations in the revised edition have been redrawn in colour which are clearer and make a pleasurable reading.
Figures and Tables: There is addition of many new tables, figures and graphic representations to enrich the student with a lot of material in short space and for quick grasp.
Colour Atlas: The Colour Atlas given in beginning of the book has 48 representative photomicrographs of high quality presented in labelled format for easy identification of the structures by the beginners in pathology. In spite of valuable insertions and additions, sincere effort has been made that the volume of book does not increase which has been done by selective deletion of redundant and unnecessary material. In essence, the revised edition is a complete text of pathology for students of dentistry, and it is anticipated that the users would not be required to refer to any other book during their routine learning of pathology.