Dentistry Books

I recommend this only for very serious students of oral medicine, not the average dental student like myself. There is good information in here, but there are more conveniently organized and more broadly useful books out there for people who need a quick reference.

An interesting book, but good for beginners I mean people who have just finished university and are planning to open a dental cabinet.
Dentist and/or orthodontists with some experience will find just some interesting suggestions.Anyway the right score, from my point of view, shoulde be 3,5: 3 for skilled dentist and 4 for beginners.
Concluding... congratulation to the Author he did a really good job.

I was waiting to recieve this book for a long time, but was dissapointed with it. I felt like there is not enough information about cosmetic options. The book says a lot about "dentist fobia" and how to brush your teeth properly, but not much about cosmetic dentistry.

The volume arrived in perfect condition. The large and well-spaced format promised clear illustration and sequencing of procedures, which was mostly,but not always, the case. A number of procedures had quite complex suturing involved, which was only shown when completed, not during the suturing, and this I found quite a let down.
Overall, the Atlas describes, with the aid of great photographs, a variety of periodontal surgical procedures, but does not always provide the desired detail in all aspects of the procedure.

It is possible that the Micheal Mastromarino who coauthored this book is the same former dentist now linked (late 2007) to illegal body parts harvesting via a firm called Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd. of Fort Lee, N.J.. This person also may have lost his dentist license in part due to prescription drug abuse.


The other authors of this book have no connection or links with the above statement.

This is not a statement about the veracity or use of the information contained within the book - just about one of the authors so that potential readers can be fully informed.

Some of this makes interesting reading, and it appears that the methods used have been useful, so for a lay person to read it and perhaps get some ideas makes sense.
However, as noted above, the training of speech-language pathologists of today is beyond this book.

This is probably a good beginning for writing your own personal statement. I don't think that it should be your only book or resource. A lot of the books out there are great if you have won the Olympics, cured cancer, or if you have already established your own blood bank or something. For the more traditional students (like me) who have not saved the world, this book offers an honest start in beginning to evaluate what you may write about. I supplemented this book with the writing center at my school and I got about 12 interviews (can't remember exact number) after sending my secondaries so I think this book combined with the writing center helped.

The best part of this book is definitely the PAT. It offers a lot of strategies and has more practice problems than other books I looked at. I also like the section they have in the beginning of the book for pre-dents, which offers advice on things like recommendation letters and interviews.

The concerns that I have with this book are that I've seen the many complaints about mistakes in the answer key, and I can't tell whether I really got a question wrong or if it's a typo. Also, the math and science sections aren't sufficient. I wish that Barron's would update this, too, because it was published about 10 years ago, and I'd like to have most up to date study material possible.

Ok, this is the first book I bought because I thought, this can help.

It doesn't. You might as well get a 6th grade bio book and read that, which would have more information than this book. This book gives you one-line facts about things that you seriously need to know in-depth for the DAT.

As mentioned by another Amazonian, the PAT is probably the ONLY reason to get this, and it's probably a poor reason because this book has sooo many typos. It's not even the typos that makes me so disgruntled... the book will answer questions with wrong answer! or it'll provide you with 2 "right" answers, but choose the lesser true of the two.

i.e. How does a catalyst work?

There was an answer of "Lowers Activation Energy," which should be right, but was not! ummm, are this is for the DAT?

Sure, the title says "How to prepare for the DAT." Yeah, this only prepares you to PREPARE for the DAT.

good, 2 tests in it, comprehensive, not heavy to carry with you

I just took the DAT and used this book in conjunction with others. It is ok for the Science sections, however the reading comp section is not representative of what is on the actual test. The passages on the real test are not all about Dentistry. There are also plenty of errors in the PAT section. I would recommend the coursework from Kaplan. I would also recommend the KSF review since their questions are somewhat representative of what the actual exam covers. Also they have modified the 2007 exam questions a bit so do be shocked when you see them.

First of all, this book is not as bad as others make it out to be. But I think people should realize that this book is NOT a complete guide for the DAT. The science review sections were condensed...very much like preliminary lecture notes. However, the PAT section was very helpful. I found the level of hardness on the real test very similar to the book's. What I suggest is you use Kaplan or TopScore (some very heavy duty review books) along with this book for the PAT section. Then, a few days before the test, flip this book open to go through the materials quickly to keep your brain in science mode. And, of course, constantly practice the PAT section. My prelimary PAT score was 13 when I signed up for Kaplan (which was useless btw), and with this book I got an 18 on the real PAT.

I bought theWheeler's Dental Anatomy, Physiology and Occlusion thinking that I was buying a pretty new edicion of a book with a CD and color pictures. What I recieved at home was an old book with horrible black and white pictures and an awful redaction. I don't know how newest edition is, but I am shure that this old one is almost not a text book.

This book is wordy and lacks organization. It is full of awkward sentences, rambling paragraphs and has no sense of continuity. The diagrams are not labeled, of low quality and seemingly outdated. There are much better anatomy references out there and I suggest looking into the other literature. Wheeler's text simply demonstrates the need for a Frank Netter of sorts- someone who can do for Oral Anatomy what Dr. Netter did for Gross Anatomy. I'm actually considering writing my own text one day so that future students will be able to spend more time focusing on anatomy rather than the minutia and distractions that this book is full of. If you need to learn Oral Anatomy this is not the book that will help.

Unfortunately some of the reviewers are steeped in subjective reality and probably the users and promoters of another dental anatomy text. In a period of evidence based dental education and practice, a book without much of a refernce base is outdated; a book with out a CD is outdated; a book without a good index is hardly useful; a book without the latest information on dental anatomy is outdated; and a book without facts to build on is no book at all.
Wheeler's 8th edition has none of these deficiences.

Wheeler's Dental Anatomy, Physiology and Occlusion
by Major M. Ash

It is a good book with wealth of informations but also with lots of unnecessary details/ facts. One needs to wade through complete text material before discarding all extra material, a real difficult task for a first time learner of dental anatomy especially occlusion. Some of the previous criticisms are genuine. Yet this is the only book of its kind in the market. May be one of us (dentists) should embark upon the task of writing a better monologue/ text along with clear illustrations on dental anatomy, physiology and occlusion?

Dental anatomy is a tough subject to learn. The human dentition varies from person to person and from race to race. If you truly want to learn dental anatomy a text book by itself is not enough. Use models, typodonts, extracted teeth, and your own patients to further your understanding. You might have to purchase such items by yourself. You have to gain knowledge through experience. This book (previous edition, old exams, and dental decks) helped me to achieve a 99 percentile on NDBE Part I. I can't believe the lack of professionalism from the previous reviewers. They are an embarrassment to the profession of dentistry. Who cares if you are #2 in the class, too bad you are not #1 (Then we can take you seriously!). I would recommend this book only as a supplement to the learning of dental anatomy. You can not learn all there is about dentistry from a text book! Dental school only gives you the basics.

Ok but did not help me all that much. I needed more. In retrospect, the best way to prep for this test is to take the princeton review prep course.

I felt this book was excellent in it's preperation for the PAT section, the Quantitative Reasoning section, and also the natural science outlines. Although, I would purchase Barrons preparation for the DAT in addition to this book because it is an excellent guide for the science sections. Study and memorize these two books and your improvement will be great. And dont waste any more money!

It's is very obvious that the editors either completely ignored their job or have no idea that the DAT is completely computerized. It gives good tips on how to study and what not, but DON'T count on this book to help you do well. There are much better reviews out there. The sample tests are the best part. Other than that itn was a an okay book. Not to be used as the primary study tool.

With the scarcity of DAT prep products you may be tempted to buy this. This book was not very helpful. It basically consists of a few practice questions and a full sample test. It has a fairly decent math review though. This book is out of date (for example it refers to the 1988 and 1993 DAT exams while explaining the perceptual ability) and contains many errors. If you are serious about studying for this test, I would buy TopScorePro DAT review CD-ROM (pretty good) and get the DAT review book from KAPLAN (great!!!)

This book is a good reference if you are planning on taking the DAT five years ago. The DAT is computerized now and most of the study skills they stress have to do with note making and marking of the test itself. This is no longer possible to do now that the test is computerized. I have taken the test and I would have to say that the best tool I had to use was the Topscore Pro program. This program has difficult questions that are much closer to the actual questions that are on the DAT, plus the format is exactly the same. It is tougher than you think to go from looking at a paper test the the computerized test, SO BUY THE DAMN PROGRAM! Dont waste money on the other books available unless you need practice on the PAT. The best study guides are the textbooks you used for the classes. Review them and study what you dont remember, Orgo is mostly the first semester while the rest of the sections do cover a wide range of material. GOOD LUCK